Tsukaima no Chrono
by Nakushita
Summary: AU, In a timeline where Chrono Harlown from Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha is summoned by Louise into the world of Zero no Tsukaima, how will this affect the events that unfold? Most likely ChronoxHarem if any pairing, in faithfulness to the original. Discontinued
1. The beginning of a new story

_Disclaimer: I don't own Zero no Tsukaima or Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nonoha, they belong respectively to JC staff and 7 arcs and whoever else they are licensed to. Even if I did, I probably wouldn't have the stamina to write so creatively at such a pace. Feel free to take this idea and make your own story out of it, no need to ask me for permission, in fact I insist, just remember to send me a copy…_

Tsukaima no Chrono

Chapter 1: The beginning of a new story…

Sometime after what is known by some as the Book of Darkness incident, somewhere in the void between dimensions, through a swirling vortex of colour a metallic object majestically glides forth in silence. Looking much like a tuning fork with a spherical bulge in the middle from a distance, the L-class cruiser 'Asura' belonging to the Time Space Administration Bureau is where we find one of the protagonists of this story.

"Chrono-kun, convincing the people at Saint Church to accept and teach Hayate-chan the ways of ancient Belka will greatly smooth over the aftermath of the Book of Darkness incident." The commanding yet melodious voice belongs to a tall, green-haired lady of indefinite age dressed in the blue uniform of the TSAB navy bearing the insignia of an Admiral in command of a dimensional ship.

This is Lindy Harlown, the person in charge of the 'Asura'.

"Yes Captain, I will do my best to explain the circumstances regarding Yagami Hayate to Paladin Carim Gracia at the cathedral!" A diminutive blue haired figure standing in front of what appears to be a large door with a wormhole hovering in front of it reports, saluting smartly.

This is Chrono Harlown a 14 year old Mid-childan male who looks more like a 10 year old by our standards. He holds the rank of Enforcer in the TSAB military whose main job is to act as the arms and hands of the 'Asura' where its weapon systems are not suitable for the job. He is often dispatched on errands to negotiate, investigate, report and as his job title indicates ENFORCE the will and mission of the vessel to which he belongs.

"No need to be so formal, you feel like such a stranger to your mother sometimes… Oh where did my warm and loving son go? Don't forget to bring back some souvenirs for me and Fate when you come back!" A bright red blush appears on Chrono's face as he watches his mother and commander wave a hankerchief at him in a farewell gesture.

"Dimensional Teleport commencing in five seconds…" Hearing his colleague Amy's voice begin the countdown, Chrono feels the familiar magical energies involved in his form of dimensional travel gather around him ready to whisk him away via dimensional relays from the 'Asura' via TSAB headquarters to the planet Mid-childa where the Saint Church cathedral resides. What he wasn't expecting was a hovering green oval appearing above him and intercepting his transport stream. His only thought before he was sucked into that green oval which seemingly no one else had noticed was a stunned _Eh… _

As expected from such an advanced race of technologically boosted mages, they immediately noticed the anomaly as well as Chrono's subsequent disappearance from the teleport stream. But for all their sensors capabilities, they lost his signal forcing the TSAB to declare him MIA much to the distraught of his mother and newly adopted sister Fate… There are an infinite number of dimensions and it wouldn't do to waste the significant resources of TSAB's navy to search for a single person after all.

**-Author's Notes-**

Hello all, hope you enjoyed the first chapter of my very first fanfiction. I've had this idea bouncing in my head all day after marathoning both Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha and Zero no Tsukaima, including all their sequels straight and found that I disliked what they did with Chrono in Strikers and I found Saito to be a bit too much like a typical high schooler to be a genuinely worthy hero.


	2. One needs to prepare for pain

Tsukaima no Chrono

Chapter 2: One needs to prepare for pain…

A world of nothingness, devoid of light and touch, an unfamiliar sight to those used to the methods of travel employed by the mages of Mid-childa, whether it be the seemingly instantaneous effect of an assisted Dimensional Teleport, or the relatively primitive use of flight which is restricted to mages with clearance on TSAB administered planets and restricted by the high magical power requirements on such planets that are not administrated, this completely black, senseless vista that Chrono Harlown was floating in is definitely something he had never experienced before.

_Am I dead? I knew the recent Book of Darkness case was solved too easily. I shouldn't have ever believed a young girl like Hayate could have possibly actually subdued a S-Class Lost Logia such as the Tome of the Night Sky. This has got to be its revenge on me, how ironic._ As with all such soliloquies these are quickly disproven with Chrono rapidly approaching what appears to be the light at the end of the tunnel.

Chrono an experienced Enforcer, encountering many traps and ambushes as well as dealing with strange beings and occurrences immediately treated such a development with suspicion. "DURANDAL!" he shouts as he prepares to retrieve the storage form of his now famed ice staff from inside his coat, only to miss it as he hits a seemingly solid wall of air. Shaking off the stun caused by the sudden impact he vaguely registers the feeling of wind drag and disregarding it as his mind remembers that he is an aerial mage and that he can fly. Calmly taking in a deep breath he focuses and realises that the magic around him was not arranging itself in the pattern he needs to fly.

_I can't believe I'm suffering from teleportation sickness right now._ In Chrono's mind a very feline pair of twins were giving a lecture "Chrono, the reason why we don't use dimensional teleport for travelling all the time is the excessive magic requirements causing most mages to temporarily lose their magical ability after such travel and the difficulty of getting where we really want to without a beacon, hence all TSAB dimensional ships are equipped with a teleportation pad." A dejected _This is going to hurt_ were his thoughts as he sped towards the ground.

Impact point T minus 10 minutes…

Grass, green green grass as far as the eye can see upon a flat plain. Smack bang in the centre of this lush visage is what appears to be a spire surrounded by boundary wall, both made of stone. This is the Tristain Kingdoms Magical Academy. We focus a bit to the side of the centre spire and on the expanse between this and the boundary wall. Here we find standing in the shape of a crescent surrounding a tall, slim, balding man who seems to be in a position of authority, a diverse group of young people.

"At last, today is the summoning ceremony. While this is your first test as 2nd years, it is equally a holy day as nobles when you will meet up with your eternal servant." Professor Colbert, the tall, slim, balding man dictates proudly.

Colbert indicates towards one in the group of young people we can now identify as his students, 2nd years. A boy with messy, wind swept brown hair is the first to begin to summon and in a cloudy swirl out pops what appears to be a large eye with a purple lightning shaped body that is identified to be a bug-bear to the amazement of those gathered. We can now identify this as an event for student mages to summon familiars. Following this example the gathered group of students take turns summoning with various amounts of boasting, arrogance and results including a giant mole, a wind dragon and a salamander.

"Just fitting for the last, you brought forth a big catch Ms. Zerbst" Professor Colbert congratulates a buxom, dark skinned young lady with red hair.

Patting the hot pink Salamander on the head, the girl responds, "It's a fitting result for my secondary name, Kirche the Ardent."

Nodding then looking around, Professor Colbert asks out "Well, is this everyone?" to which the girl now identified as Ms Zerbst responds "No there is still Ms. Vallière."

A giggle runs rampant through the crowd.

"It's Louise the Zero."

"What is she going to summon?"

"There's no way she'll summon anything. Another explosion and it'll be done." Such things were muttered by the crowd in a condescending tone as a small girl with light skin, pink hair and eyes and most noticeably a flat chest steps forward.

"Since you put up such a display of vanity, I'm sure you'll summon something more amazing than this one, right Louise?" Ms. Zerbst states in a provocative manner indicating her salamander.

"Of course" Louise Vallière responds out loud in a flippant tone.

In a soft voice under her breath and with her magic wand shaking in her hand she begs "Please!"

She then raises her wand and in a loud voice chants "To my servant that exists somewhere within the ends of the universe!"

The surprise of her peers was evident, earning comments such as:

"What kind of spell is that?"

"Well, well, it has some sense of originality at least…"

Ignoring this, the girl continues to chant "To the holy, beautiful and above most, powerful familiar, I appeal to you from my heart as I chant. Answer my guidance!" She waves her wand around in the air above her then as the magical energies focus she stabs her wand out in front of her. Achieving the expectations of her peers and creating a noteworthy explosion.

It is this explosion that meets and cushions our beloved meteorite known as Chrono Harlown, though many would probably dispute that the ground would have been more comfortable to land on…

**-Author's notes-**

This ends the second chapter of my story, hope you all enjoyed it. Next chapter will bring the first actual interaction between Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière and Chrono Harlown.


	3. First Kiss!

Tsukaima no Chrono

Chapter 3: First kiss!

A cloud of dust, similar in appearance to the aftermath of an artillery barrage begins to fade revealing a silhouette of two figures one crouching over the other.

On closer inspection, we see two blond haired blue eyed youngsters, the male speaking to the female with a great deal of concern. "Are you alright, Montmorency?"

Seeing the girl Montmorency staring at something in bewilderment he asks "What's the matter." The girl lifts her hand and points somewhere in response.

Turning his head to look in the same direction he focuses on two figures, very ordinary in our perspective other than the hair colours and the girl blurts out "A human?"

Now most ordinary people would wonder why a human would be startled at seeing another human, but let us remember that this is the scene where just moments prior to an explosion, wondrous and magical creatures were summoned in an event for young mages to gain their eternal partner, think a witches black cat, better known as a familiar. Gaining a better view of the human the blond kids are referring to, it is a sleeping Chrono Harlown, dressed in nondescript clothes, consisting of a blue shirt, blue trousers, belt and black boots. TSABs off duty uniform.(1) In front of which stands our main heroine Louise who is dressed in the uniform of the Tristain Magic Academy.

"No matter how you look at it he's just a commoner. Yes, just a commoner" the blond boy narrates.

"This… this… is my holy, beautiful and above most, powerful…" Louise stutters out in a manner that seems both disappointed and agitated at the same time, you'd think she is about to cry. It is about this time that Chrono stirs and opens his blue eyes and sees Louise in all her pink haired pink eyed glory.

"Who are you?" is the question posed by Louise "It seems there is a language barrier. Where are you from, commoner?"

Chrono was unable to comprehend what Louise was asking, after all at this current point in time, it made as much sense as the French language from Nanoha's backwater planet Earth did without his translation matrix, he draws upon his training and gathers as much information about his current status as possible before moving.

_Looks like my translation matrix isn't working, must have been damaged along with my storage devices S2U and Durandal when their auto protect features activated to defend me from that explosion, I seriously hope this place has at least Earth's level of technology or it's going to take a long time before they regain functionality. 60 and 40 percent respectively it seems from my mind link, at least their auto repair abilities are working. I think I'm out of luck, no sign of electrically powered machinery anywhere. _Trying to feel the status of his magic his thoughts continue. _Magical and dimensional teleport operate in two ways, magical works by creating a bubble between the two points that ignores physical laws transporting you from one end to another and dimensional, by aligning your magic field to the environment you are intending to travel to which then via your concentration of magic like a magnet, snaps you to that point. I have never heard of anyone ever high jacking an object out of either methods of teleportation but it must be why my magic hasn't returned yet, the greater the distance the longer it takes for your field to readjust itself._

This lengthy internal analysis merely took a few seconds to the crowd gathered around him who only saw him look left then right in complete confusion.

What sounded like suppressed laughter came from out of his field of vision as its fiery redhead owner, Kirche Zerbst, strolled towards Louise.

"Well at least it met your big declaration! Summoning forth a commoner." Kirche taunts, then begins to laugh out loud with the rest of those gathered.

"I just made a small mistake!" Louise desperately tries to defend herself.

A round fellow standing behind her replies jovially "It's just like you Louise the Zero. You always surpass our expectations!" garnering more laughter at the unhappy Louise.

Looking around Chrono continues his internal analysis. _All of these magical creature gathered in one place, perhaps this is one of those archaic familiar summoning events that I've read in our history books, maybe I've really travelled back in time instead, my inter-dimensional chronograph says otherwise though… _

Studying the girl in front of him he notices how close their positions are and that she is lacking a strange creature that should be her summon. _From the laughter directed at this person, she looks like the class clown or loser, kinda cute to be one though, so why was she the one to speak to me? No way… I couldn't have been summoned by her right?_

"Shut up!" Louise screams at the laughing crowd.

Stalking her way towards the tall, bald Professor Colbert she gains his attention "Professor Colbert!"

Colbert stoically replies "What is it?"

Begging, Louise requests "Please allow me to summon once more!"

Colbert shakes his head in a denying manner. "I cannot allow that."

"Why!" Louise continues to beg.

"This ceremony is a holy ritual that decides the respect of a mages life, asking to redo it is a disgrace to the entire ritual. Whether you approve of it or not, it is decided that he is to be your familiar."(2) Colbert replies sternly.

_I wonder how far space-time wise I am from Mid-childa. If this girl was the one that caused an explosion powerful enough to damage my devices to this extent, it might actually be possible that she summoned me. A world this primitive definitely is a non-administered planet and being that this looks to be a summoning event means that this race is magically aware so I should follow the prime directive and hide both obviously advanced technology and magic as not to influence this worlds development. _Chrono's internal debate continues unabated and uninfluenced by the ruckus surrounding him.

"But I have never heard of using a commoner as a familiar before!" Louise spitefully states, only to cause another round of laughter amongst the crowd.

Colbert replies exasperatedly. "Whether he's a commoner or anything else, I accept no exceptions."

In a commanding tone he then tells her. "Continue with the ritual."

Louise pokes Chrono with her wand waking him up from his thoughts and exclaims unbelievingly "Eh! With this?" proceeding to poke Chrono several more times causing his eyebrow to twitch, but he was trained to have patience.

"Hurry this up! Or do I have to really expel you?" Colbert threatens.

The crowd joins in with a cheer "Yeah, Yeah!"

Crestfallen Louise responds with a defeated "I understand…"

Sensing a disturbance in the force… cough… Chrono looks up to see Louise moving closer to him.

The crowd cheers "Go Louise!" followed by a series of wolf whistles.

Looking down at Chrono with a slight blush on her face, Louise pridefully says "Be grateful. Getting this from a noble generally never happens in ones lifetime!"

Louise the raises her wand and begins to chant. Recognising it for what it is, Chronos mind begins to race. _No! This is not good! That's a forced contracting spell for familiars, who knows what will happen if I get hit by that. _

Chrono desperately searches for someway to escape. _Can't fly, surrounded, no magic to defend myself with, I'll most likely be killed with this number of opponents if I strike, not that I can really strike a girl that isn't trying to hurt me in the first place. I sense no ill will from this one._

"My name is Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière." Continuing to chant while she points her wand at Chrono, she then kneels down beside him. "To the pentagon that holds the five powers, bless this one and yield this as my familiar…" grabbing Chrono's head, who unable to move due to his panic, she slowly bends towards him, giving him a mouth to mouth kiss.

Knocked out of his stupor by the sensation of soft lips against his, a reaction usually belonging to young girls runs through his mind. _My first kiss!_

**-Author's Notes-**

Hello yet again! Hope you enjoyed chapter 3 of TnC! I looked at my traffic stats today for the first time and I'm surprised I had visitors to my story already, especially Australians. Both Nanoha and Zero no Tsukaima while having a following in Japan were to my knowledge only recently licenced in America and not at all in Australia so I was thinking it might not have been read at all. Which brings me to my second point, I am looking for a beta reader to improve my writing, Being an accounting graduate and working as a financial controller, I have always had high marks for writing essays and reports, but this is a rather rare attempt at dialogue for me so I do not have much confidence in it. If you're interested in beta reading for me, send me a message via my ffnet profile, I'll get back to you ASAP.

As for the numbers in parenthesis, these are points that I thought I should make but would interrupt the flow of the story.

(1) I refer to Chrono's appearance in episode 3 of Nanoha A's where he visits Admiral graham with Nanoha and Fate.

(2) The sentence sounds wrong, but the Japanese words meiji means respect/honour.

Sorry for the long authors note. Look forward to the next chapter of TnC. I'll be following ZnT the anime's path very closely so expect the fabulous bedroom scene.


	4. I'm not a ferret!

Tsukaima no Chrono

Chapter 4: I'm not a ferret!

Having your first kiss with a good looking girl is usually something to be proud of for a young adolescent boy, it is usually a status symbol representing your abilities to attract the opposite gender and a sign that there is someone that cares for you… In Chrono's case however, he was not at all happy, since his first kiss represented what he knew to be a contract to serve the person with closed eyes in front of him, for all eternity.

"It seems you have now completed your contract with your servant" Professor Colbert acknowledges to Louise, the aforementioned girl with closed eyes.

At this point in time Chrono studies the magical energies acting upon him with interest. _I can't believe I've just become a familiar! Arrgh… the Lieze twins are going to have a field day with this. Might as well see what this contract entails… _Chrono starts to feel out the meaning behind the arrangement of the magic spell.

_Hmm, no signs of my life force or magic power being directly linked to her, looks like it contains a minor loyalty spell affecting both parties preventing us from directly willing to kill each other, a further addendum gives the master a compulsion to take care of me and, oh? What's this, in return for the care granted to me, in times of danger to my master and while using a weapon, I will be granted a boost to my physical performance as well as knowledge to wield the weapon being used in order to protect them. _Chrono takes a few more milliseconds to ponder that last portion before continuing on to study the final part of the contract spell. 

_In recognition of this, the contract will be sealed with this _The symbol had no significance in meaning to Chrono's knowledge of magic '_branded' onto the familiar. _

As Chrono discovers this string in the spell, his eyes open wider in mortification as his entire body starts to heat up making him roll around the ground in pain.

Looking on this event happening as steam rises from Chrono's body, Louise gently states in a manner normally used for placating small animals. "It'll end soon, it's just etching the familiar rune."

In response to this, not that Chrono could actually comprehend what Louise had said, he clutches his left hand and screams out loud as pain beyond what he had ever felt before in his short life began to cut away like a knife across the back of it. A bright light emits from the hand, displaying the symbol being carved upon it.

Witnessing this Professor Colbert attempts to identify the runes, letting out a fascinated "Oh?" after which Chrono falls unconscious from the pain.

Waking up, Chrono finds himself lying upon a pile of hay inside an ornately furnished room, with a finely crafted wooden wardrobe, chairs, a table with a candle placed at the centre and a extravagant large roofed bed.

Groaning he sits up. _What's hay doing in a room like this? _

He then hears a voice towards from behind him, he quickly turns around and finds the girl who kissed him saying something he doesn't quite understand…

"So you've finally awoken. After much disagreement, I've given up and decided to take you as my familiar." Chrono's eyes track her as she moves across the room towards the wardrobe.

"Be grateful." Louise says in a bored tone.

Deciding to at least get off the uncomfortable pile of hay on the floor, Chrono stands up. _What does she think I am, a farm animal? She could've been at least decent enough to give another human being an actual bed to lie in. _

His eyes begin to widen for the second time in the same day, as not noticing the rage in Chrono's mind, Louise begins to undress. _Eh? I've heard of this happening in dreams but this is so forward. _A very disturbing thought passes through. _No! This can't be happening; I can't be related to the ferret changeling in any way! But nothing else can explain this situation, there's no way a girl would just undress in front of a guy they barely know like this! _

Chrono's thoughts are interrupted as Louise finishes taking off her skirt and shirt, throwing them at him and covering his field of vision forcing him to struggle as it wraps around his head and making it hard to breathe.

"Go wash those. Even if you don't understand my words, as a familiar you should at least understand this." Chrono finally manages to unwrap the clothing from his head, taking a deep breath he blushes as a vision of Louise in a nightie is given.

Being a sensible and innocent young boy, he normally would've covered his eyes in some way. However since he is of the belief that he is in the form of a ferret currently, he just stared dumbly, taking in the view as not to blow his cover.

"You don't understand the orders of your master? If even orders can't be understood that's worse than a dog…" Louise says in disappointment.

Chrono by now has figured out that he couldn't be holding Louise's clothing in his hands if he had really transformed into a ferret, he checks his hands to make sure. _Ferret? No ferret! Yes! I'm not related to that ferret changeling after all!_

Uni-matrix 01, not… Somewhere deep in the infinity of inter-dimensional space inside TSAB headquarters, inside the infinite library, a young boy by the name of Yuuno Scrya suddenly sneezes then feels very irritated. "I haven't felt this since the last time I saw Chrono, that bastard's probably still alive and having a laugh at my expense again!" Yuuno yells out angrily to the dismay of the other patrons to the infinite library.

Focusing back on a certain room in a certain magic academy in a country called Tristainia in a continent known as Halkeginia, we find Chrono, having forgotten about Louise in his joy or merely ignoring her presence, doing a happy dance, using Louise's clothes as pom poms while he waved his arms, yelling out "Yes! I'm not a ferret!" repeatedly to the annoyance of Louise.

Not understanding the yells or why Chrono was dancing around Louise angrily covers her ears and exclaims "So noisy! Why is it yelling and jumping around like that!"

Placing a fist in the palm of her other hand as if discovering something Louise says "Ah! There's that mute spell that I learned last year!"

Scratching her head with one finger and closing her eyes in a thoughtful pose Louise continues to talk to herself "Um… I think it was something like An-suru-veru-un"

Picking up her wand from the table she chants nonchalantly. "Immediately hold your silence and answer my demand!"

Stopping his dancing as he felt a sudden spike in magic near him, his eyes widen for the third time in surprise as he immediately charges towards Louise. _Why is she channelling something as dangerous as antimatter! I've got to stop her!_ His actions however were far too late as the antimatter generated hit the air molecules surrounding it causing an explosion that threw him back.

Looking down upon a charred and twitching Chrono holding onto two pieces of decimated cloth vaguely recognisable as her shirt and skirt, Louise says in wonderment. "That's so strange…"

"What… What was that…" Chrono manages to eek out in his daze.

Getting up and dusting himself off, he starts to yell at Louise. "What did you think you were doing! Learn to use magic properly you dimwit! That was really dangerous!"

As Chrono closes in on Louise and grabbing her shoulders, ready to start shaking some sense into her, Louise starts to speak in a launguage which Chrono understands.

"I understand, I understand!" Louise exclaims in a stunned tone.

"Did you just say you understand?" Chrono asks. Louise then nods in reply.

"Say something" Louise demands.

Stepping back Chrono thinks _Wow, that explosion seems to have fixed my translation matrix._

Out loud he says "You really can understand me now right?"

"What's the meaning of this… It was a spell of silence" Louise timidly states.

Sighing she says. "So I screwed up again"

Louise then asks "What is your name?"

"Chrono, Chrono Harlown" Chrono replies.

"That is a surprisingly normal name, how come you couldn't understand what I was saying?" Louise questions.

Chrono then answers. "I don't know, one second my mother was waving good bye to me, the next I was looking at you!" Internally Chrono thinks._ I can't let her know the truth, she can't handle the truth!_

Upon hearing this Louise nods once again.

Chrono comes up with a question of his own to continue the façade despite knowing the truth. "How did I get here?"

Louise replies "Isn't it obvious? You were summoned by me, as a familiar."

Pretending to be surprised Chrono exclaims. "A familiar?"

Thinking that it was a stunned expression on Chrono's face, Louise points down at his hand where an unrecognisable line of text despite the translation matrix being on is shown.

Needing some time to absorb all that has happened today, Chrono uses the foot in mouth technique that tends to get him evicted from female presences. "By the way, isn't it kinda cold to be standing there talking to me in your underwear for that long, or are you hot for me?"

Instead of being kicked out of the room after putting Louise into an indignant rage, the following explosion and unconsciousness was not something he had predicted.

**-Author's Notes-**

That was chapter 4 of TnC, hoped you enjoyed reading it. We have almost made it to the end of episode one in the timeline. One down, thirty six more to go… Wow that's frightening, at 5 chapters and roughly 8000 words per episode… that makes 180 chapters and 288000 words before I finish this story. Hope I'm able to finish this. Enough of my procrastinating, by the way I'm still looking for a beta reader.

Thanks for reading and see you next chapter where we finish episode one.


	5. But I wasn't running away!

Tsukaima no Chrono

Chapter 5: But I wasn't running away!

Groaning, a very young looking boy slowly opens his eyes trying to recall what happened. _Ah that's right I was trying to get myself kicked out of the room so I could gather my thoughts. _

Getting up and walking towards the 4 post bed inside the bedroom from the pile of hay he was lying on, he looks down upon the pink haired young woman that sent him to sleep. _Back at Mid-childa people would never use their magic so recklessly! Seriously, I've heard of girls beating perverts up and all that, but blasting them? Then again, I've just recently encountered someone who makes friends the same way… _

The girl in bed, Louise then starts to mutter in her sleep. "I can't believe I summoned… innocent looking young boy… so perverted at his age."

_What's she talking about, I'm fourteen and it's my right and duty to act perverted. _Chrono still has not realised that he looks to be a ten year old child to most humanoids in the many universes that exist, in fact he's about a head shorter than Louise even.

Taking in the view outside the room's single window he notices that it's dark outside. _Wonder how long I've been sleeping, it was still early morning from what I could tell when I last woke up. Well since my so called Master is asleep, I'll take this chance to explore. _With that thought he walks out of the room, closing the door behind him silently as the skills he learnt for spying was put to use.

Walking along the corridor that was lined with many doors similar to the one that led to Louise's room, Chrono takes notice of the faint lighting from what seemed to be live fire torches interspersed along the walls. Moving closer to one of them, one of his suspicions was confirmed. _There truly would be no need for electricity in this world, or many sources of energy either. The ambient magical energy is more than enough to power these magical flames for eternity. With no use for electronics and silicon, the parts that I need to repair my devices so that I may once again use them will need to be generated by the devices themselves. _

Reaching the end of the hallway, he enters a spiral stairwell and heads down. As he approaches the bottom, he hears two voices, one male, one female. Pressing his back towards the wall, he moves towards the exit of the stairwell and peeks out as not to give himself away. Matching the voices to a blond haired guy that we've seen before talking with a brunette girl, he eavesdrops on the conversation.

"I'm really good at making soufflé." The girl begins.

"I will love to try that out." The guy replies.

"Really?" The girl exclaims.

"Of course Katie, I cannot tell you lies…" The guy responds with false sincerity.

The girl responds, saying the guys name adoringly. "Guiché!"

Watching this Chrono shakes his head in disbelief. _How embarrassing, this is like one of those dramas that mother watches so often. These two are no threat to me, nor do I need to watch this to its conclusion. _

Deciding this, he moves on towards the next stairwell on the other end of the current hallway. _It seems that this building has many levels. Probably that spire that I saw when I was falling, wonder how high up I actually am. _

As Chrono passes by the talking couple he hears more romantic nonsense being spouted by the guy that in his mind he has labelled a playboy. "There cannot be any deceit in my feelings towards you…"

_I think I'm going to be sick, how can a guy spout out such a disgusting line with a straight face. _Chrono blanched along with this thought.

It is at this point that the guy, now identified as Guiché notices Chrono.

"It's the commoner that Louise summoned." Guiché states.

In Chrono's mind he thinks. C_ommoner? How rude… He must be one of those rich kids that don't know how to be diplomatic when he speaks. _

The girl, Katie then replies. "Oh, the one from today's ceremony. It's big news even amongst the first years."

Taking in this information Chrono realises. _This must be a school then, there shouldn't be reference to grades otherwise. _

"He suddenly fell unconscious and was unable to move so it was a big pain to us." Guiché explains.

Continuing to walk as if ignoring what is being said, Chrono silently rages. _Pain! I'll show you pain! I'm only letting you go on account of the Prime Directive. _

Looking sympathetically at Chrono's diminutive figure, Katie is overwhelmed by her motherly instincts. "Guiché, you shouldn't be so hard on him, look at how young he is, so cute!"

Beckoning towards Chrono she then asks. "Are you lost young one? Why aren't you with your master?"

Guiché then interrupts in a flippant way, possibly out of jealousy. "Hmmph! Knowing Louise the Zero, she probably kidnapped this poor kid because a fully grown commoner would've been too hard."

Turning around Chrono directs his gratitude towards Katie. "Thanks, but I'm not lost, I've been sent on an… errand… by my master."

Finding himself ignored Guiché taunts. "Won't you show gratitude towards a Noble that has troubled himself for you?"

_Noble? The ferret changeling is more noble than you are._ Out loud Chrono sarcastically says. "Is that so, well thank you."

Waving his hand in a farewell gesture, Chrono bows and says. "Well then, I'll be leaving."

Under his breath he mumbles "What an irritating moron." as he turns around and walks away.

"That lack of etiquette, shows the difference between commoners and nobles." Guiché then tells Katie.

Back in Louise's room, during the conversation between Chrono and the couple, Louise begins to stir.

"Toilet…" she mumbles sleepily, rubbing her eyes adorably and sluggishly getting out of bed, she swings her legs over the side of it touching on the hay that lay scattered across the floor.

"What's this hay doing in my bedroom? Ah, I remember, I summoned a perverted little boy by the name of Chrono as my familiar." Getting angry at the memory she shouts. "Why is a commoner my familiar? Why not a dragon or griffon? I wanted something cooler!"

Now wide awake, she lays her eyes on the unoccupied hay stack.

"Chrono Harlown?" Louise enquires in disbelief.

Looking around her bedroom and seeing no trace of her familiar, she extrapolates. "He ran away? My familiar? You're kidding right?"

Wetting herself as panic sets in while previous urges were forgotten; she quickly changes her clothes and runs out to seek help in searching for her wayward familiar.

By the time Louise had started changing her clothes, Chrono had made it down to the ground floor of the building. _Hmm, 2 stairwells, so my master's room is on the third floor. Now that I think of it, I haven't learned her name yet._

Walking out into the main foyer, he encounters yet another lovey dovey scene.

_Don't students in this school have anything better to do at night than to flirt? _Chrono thinks in irritation, ignoring the fact that in a world without electricity, there are no televisions or computers to distract the youth like in more advanced societies.

"It's a dream being able to sit here alone with you, Kirche the Ardent." A young man with brown hair and long sideburns states.

Leaning into the young man, the buxom, fiery redhead Kirche seductively replies. "Well, tonight, the fervour will not end here."

Sensing that this was becoming something he really didn't want to witness, Chrono quickens his pace towards the main door leading to the outside.

The couple, noticing the figure heading outside in haste causes the young man with Kirche to ask. "Isn't that Louise the Zero's…"

Before he completes the question, Kirche answers with a dumbfounded look in the direction of the retreating Chrono. "Yes, it's the commoner familiar. Wonder where it's going, it seems to be in such a rush…"

As Chrono exits the building, Louise has finally ran down to the level below the one her room is located on, noticing Guiché, Louise hisses. "Catch it for me! It ran away, my familiar!"

Responding in a surprised tone Guiché says. "The familiar you're contracted with? It said it was on an errand for you."

Taking a 'I'm holier than thou' pose, Guiché says to Louise in a condescending tone. "Amazing! Being your familiar, Louise the Zero, I guess it isn't surprising it'll defy common sense…"

Taking offence, Louise shouts at Guiché while ignoring Katie who was standing next to him. "Stop being in awe and help me catch it!"

Louise then drags Guiché away to the dismay of Katie.

Looking at Katie while he was carried off, Guiché shrugs his shoulders and says. "I guess it can't be helped…"

During Guiché and Louise's conversation, Chrono had already made a lap of the perimeter wall surrounding the spire he came out of. _Seems like there's no other signs of civilization in sight, wonder why this place is so isolated. Only one gate and one straight road leading in and out of this place that I could find. I can't sense anyone else out here, should I take a risk and fly to scout further? I have no currency that can be used here most likely so food and shelter will be a problem if I don't manage to get back, at least I know here I have a master with a compulsion to take care of me so I don't think I'll starve. Besides if I'm noticed by whatever authorities that exist, I don't know if they have identification papers or the sort, I might end up having to fight or be arrested. I better get back to my master's room before she wakes up then… _

With this thought he begins to walk back towards the building housing Louise's bedroom intending to go to sleep to be rested for the day tomorrow. He wasn't expecting to be suddenly flying horizontally upwards facing towards the two moons that orbit the planet. _Eh, so this planet has two moons, by how large they look and how close they are together, this must be the cause of the high amounts of ambient magic. Mid-childa is well known for how the auras of its two moons cause a higher amount of magic to be circulated in its system, but even they aren't as close to the planet as these two are. The ley lines formed by their overlap must be humungous. _

Chrono then finds himself being swung side to side, interrupting his thoughts though the sensation was only mildly annoying as he was used to flying under his own power.

"I would like it if you gave in already! This is the second time I've had to levitate you today!" A voice he recognises as that belonging to the irritating moron from before states, following which he was magically swung side to side more violently.

"A familiar that ran away from its master? That's hilarious!" The person he had identified earlier as Kirche exclaims as she tries to suppress her laughter and failing much to the annoyance of Louise who is standing beside her.

As Guiché levitates Chrono to within touching distance of Louise, she grabs Chrono, bending him over her knee as a mother would to do to a naughty child and angrily shouts at him, emphasizing each word with a smack to his rear end. "Chrono Harlown! My name is Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière. I'm your master and you're my familiar! Remember that! You will not run away!"

Chrono with tears in his eyes due to the pain and humiliation thinks. _But, I wasn't running away!_

**-Author's Notes-**

That was chapter 5 of TnC and the end of episode one in the original timeline, hoped you enjoyed it. I am planning to release this roughly one chapter a week until I complete this and I am still looking for a beta reader.

Thanks for reading and see you next chapter.


	6. She sees me as a slave!

Tsukaima no Chrono

Chapter 6: She sees me as a slave!

We find ourselves looking into a room on the third floor of a round stone building, inside it is furnished with valuable looking antique table, chairs a wardrobe and a four poster bed and a pile of hay. Two figures are also within this room at this time, Louise who is standing next to the bed and Chrono who is sitting facing her cross-legged on the pile of hay with a chain attached to a dog collar around his neck. The other end is attached to the bed.

"Earth?" Louise asks.

"That's right, up until now I was on the planet Earth, in a country called Japan and in Uminari city." Replies Chrono. _Well technically I was on the Asura in stationary orbit above Uminari city, but I can't reveal the existence of space travelling technologies to inhabitants of a primitive world like this. _

"I was just leaving home when you caught me with a green portal." Chrono explains.

"I can't believe this, that there is another world." says Louise quietly in disbelief.

Keeping up the act in regards to his ignorance of magic, Chrono replies with conviction. "I don't want to believe it either! In any case… return me back!"

_With her and this society's limited knowledge, I don't believe that's possible but, it doesn't hurt to ask. Normally in Mid-childa, familiars are created rather than actually summoned from another place. There have been encounters with races of summoners, such as dragon summoners with extremely adaptable linker cores that summon familiars in the same way though. That flexibility in their fields tends to make them much more suitable for teleporting objects as well. I don't believe this is the case here._ Chrono thinks as he waits for a reply.

Chrono's suspicions were confirmed when Louise replies with a firm. "Impossible."

Wanting to find out more about Louise and seeing her dismissive expression, he insists. "Don't end the conversation with only one word!"

Louise responds to this request by dumping her jacket onto his head, blocking his view of her and explains. "It doesn't matter who you are or where you come from, the contract is absolute."

Having removed the obstruction of Louise's jacket, he finds Louise stripped down to her underwear once again. _This girl doesn't see me as a being of the same race, does she? _

Voicing out his objection, Chrono asks. "What do you think you are doing?"

Tossing her just discarded clothes in a bundle at Chrono causing him to wonder why she was dumping her clothes on him, Louise answers as if it should've been common sense. "I'm about to sleep so I'm getting changed."

She flicks her hair back over her shoulder then clicks her fingers, turning the table lamp off.

Chrono then acknowledges the action. _So, the mages in this world do even the most simple of things with magic. How lazy, Mid-childan mages are taught not to rely on magic for simple tasks and to use it sparingly. It not only develops the mage as a better person overall, but by showing we do not recklessly use our powers it also serves as a diplomatic pacifier for interacting with races that cannot use magic ._

In the darkness that prevails with the lamp blown out, Chrono can make out Louise's naked body from the moonlight streaming into the room from its lone window.

Stunned at her boldness and fighting his moral code he suggests. "Can I wait outside the room until you're done?"

Louise replies "Why? Planning to run away again?'

Exasperated, Chrono asks. "Are you really fine with a man seeing you like this? And, I told you before! I wasn't running away!"

He then finds the underwear that Louise had stripped off thrown onto him, joining the pile of clothes that were already on his lap.

"A man? You are just my familiar… and even if you weren't my familiar, you're just a boy at most!" Louise apathetically states.

Insulted Chrono shouts. "What?"

Louise's response was to head towards the wardrobe and pick up what seems to be another set of underwear from the floor next to it. "Ah, I knew I was forgetting something."

Throwing this extra set of underwear at Chrono, which he then realises, had a scent like a dirty wet rag and felt like one too.

Louise commands, indicating the pile of clothing Chrono had gathered. "Go wash those."

Louise then puts on a set of pyjamas, restoring her decency and heads to her bed, tucking herself under her blanket with her back facing towards Chrono.

Holding up the pile of clothes and studying it, Chrono thinks. _Eww, how disgusting, what was she doing to get her underwear into this mess?_

Out loud he asks in disbelief. "Why do I have to wash your underwear?"

Getting angry at the lack of response from Louise, Chrono raises his voice, it comes out more like a whining child. "Hey! I will never do your…"

Louise interrupts his rant answering him in an annoyed voice. "Who do you think will care for you?"

Chrono is taken aback as he remembers his previous decision as he was returning to the room. _That's right! I have no access to food or shelter here without doing something that's illegal on pretty much every civilized world I've seen. _

Louise continues to speak in a sleepy tone much like a mother patiently explaining why her child should go to bed early. "You're my familiar, right? Clean, wash, etcetera, it's your natural duty is it not? By the way, prepare my clothes tomorrow morning. Rest assured, if you work properly then you'll be fed…" 

_Natural duty? I understand putting my life on the line for my master but none of the familiars I've ever met had ever had to do so much to be only fed? Looks like that really confirms it, she doesn't see me as a familiar at all! She sees me as a slave! _Chrono notices the slow rhythmic rise and fall of a sleeping person.

Knowing that the conversation was over, Chrono gives up and decides to raise his objections the next morning, leaving Louise to her sleep. 

_I guess I have to make the most of things. _Chrono then curls up on the pile of hay on the floor and goes to sleep, shivering as a cold breeze blows through the room.

**-Author's Notes-**

Hope you enjoyed TnC Chapter 6. A bit earlier than expected, but that's because since the point where it ended was perfect to make into a chapter it was shorter too. I have given up on getting a beta reader, as I was advised that the pace I intended to release at would give them too much pressure and the fact that all the beta readers I contacted were only familiar with one but not both Zero no Tsukaima and Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha. As such please submit any errors you find, stating both the chapter and the sentence to be corrected as a review. I will fix it within the week. Thank you and see you next chapter.


	7. Espionage basics

Tsukaima no Chrono

Chapter 7: Espionage basics

Waking up at the crack of dawn, unable to sleep longer due to the uncomfortable sleeping conditions, he remembers he was given a duty to perform in exchange for food, he picks up the pile of dirty clothes Louise had chucked at him the previous night. _How am I meant to wash these? There's no way I'm going to be able to find a washing machine, they probably use magic to do that here. _

Holding up the chain that he has been attached to a bed post in order to keep him from 'running away', Chrono lets out an exaggerated sigh in depression. _Not that I can get anywhere with this chain still attached to me. I guess I could cut the chain myself with magic, but then I'd have to explain how I freed myself. _

As Chrono ponders his situation, a maid, more specifically a young maid with short black hair walks into the room with what appears to be a woven laundry basket.

Spotting Chrono standing and looking at her like a kicked puppy, the maid walks over, kneels down in front of him and rubs the top of his head with a warm and gentle smile on her face she kindly whispers.

"Poor thing, what did you do to get yourself chained up like this?" Inside, Chrono was actually fuming for being treated like a child, but the maid continues quietly with no condescending overtures and introduces herself. "My name is Siesta, one of the maids in this academy. I've heard about you from rumours that Miss Vallière had summoned a human familiar. May I know your name?"

Gaining confidence from Siesta's kindness, Chrono replies softly as not to wake Louise, who is still sleeping, up. "My name's Chrono Harlown, nice to meet you."

Noticing the dirty pile of clothing Siesta replies. "Nice to meet you too Chrono. Is that Miss Vallière's laundry?"

Chrono answers her sadly. "Unfortunately yes, it is. I was ordered by my master over there to wash these then prepare her clothes in the morning. I have no idea how to do this though, I'm chained up for one, not that I've ever had to wash any clothes before."

Siesta smiles widely and cheerfully rubs the top of Chrono's head again and says. "Well, you're in luck! I'm usually in charge of doing the laundry, so I'll take that off you."

Siesta suddenly grabs Chrono and hugs him tightly to her ample chest making him drop the pile of clothing and gushes. "You're so cute, trying to act all mature!"

She then cheerfully picks up the dirty clothes and walks out of the room leaving Chrono dazed and looking like a deer in headlights.

Regaining his capability for conscious thought Chrono lets out a low growl. _Grr! What's with the people in this world treating me like my mother does! Other than that bald headed dude that was staring at me the first day, none of these people including my maser Louise over there look that much older than me. _

Seeing that his hands are now empty he cheers up slightly from rage to mere annoyance. _Well at least that wet stinking pile of clothing will get washed. I guess I couldn't have expected that maid to let me out of these chains. _Pulling at the chain, Chrono notices it is as tough as it looks and that there is quite a bit of length to it. The end of the chain that was wrapped around one of the bed posts had been magically wielded together so it would be impossible for him to untie it. The collar end of the chain consisted of an uncomfortable leather band wrapped around his neck and a locking device. 

_Looks like this lock is the only way I can free myself. I don't sense any magical energy from this, so it should be a simple mechanical device. Now where can I find something to pick this lock with?_ Chrono studies his surroundings in more detail than he did the first night and spies a vanity unit hiding in the shadow cast by to the wardrobe.

Walking around the room towards the limits that the chain imposed on him, he finds that he can walk past the table and all the way to the wardrobe and the vanity unit in the room. _If I were to be able to find any pins or something thin to pick this lock with, it'd have to be on the vanity unit._

Seeing no such objects on top of the desk area of the vanity, he pulls out the drawer and begins to search the objects inside. _Hmm… Nothing to pick a lock with in here either. _

As he continues to rummage through, he stops as his hands find a gap at the back edge of the drawer. _Oh? A false bottom, wonder what she's hiding in here._

Taking out all the cosmetics, jewellery and other regular items that filled the upper portion of the drawer and bearing in mind exactly how everything was placed, Chrono removes the plank and pulls out something rectangular and leather bound. Looking back towards the bed to make sure Louise was still asleep, he pulls out the object. _What's with everything being locked today? This must be her diary. I should keep the location in mind. I should have expected someone like her to hide her secrets diligently like this, this could be useful information in the future. _

Chrono the puts everything back as he remembered them to be and closed the drawer. _Espionage basics: Never leave evidence of you ever being there and take note of all information that might be useful no matter how obscure. _

Chrono then takes a moment to study the wardrobe. _There shouldn't be anything in here, but as always, leave no leaf unturned. _

Opening up the upper portion the wardrobe that consisted of two outward swinging doors and two drawers below them, he looks inside and prods around. _Nothing interesting here, looks like she's quite wealthy with this room's furnishings and judging by the quality and range of her clothing. She seems to have many dress gowns made of silk and velvet. Doesn't seem to have any casual wear though, must be a boring person. _

Closing the upper portion, he opens up the two drawers underneath as well and again checks for hidden compartments. _Hmm… Nothing interesting in here either. Well, guys my age are supposed to be interested in girl's panties but I don't get what the fuss is about. _

Pulling out a pair of the unmentionables he looks at it, stretches it, sniffs it, then returns it to the bottom drawer. _Just another piece of cloth, don't see why they get so angry at me when I see them. Then again, I don't think this Louise girl cares, maybe they don't have such a social stigma about underwear and nudity in this society? _

Closing the drawers perfectly in the position he found them and remembering something from the entertainment channels on Nanoha's world _I'm such a ninja! _

Chrono then plods back over to the pile of hay he had slept on last night and sits on it, sighing. _Guess there's nothing to do until Siesta comes back with the washing…_

**-Author's Notes-**

Hope you enjoyed chapter 7 of TnC. Another short and boring chapter, but I was at a loss as to how to extend this in an interesting way. It was necessary in my storyboard as I was annoyed at the fact that Saito managed to wash Louise's uniform or at least get rid of the washing in the anime while still chained to her bed. Anyways, thank you for reading. Look forward to chapter 8 which will be a bit more interesting.


	8. Breakfast of course! Calm down Chrono!

Tsukaima no Chrono

Chapter 8: Breakfast of course! Calm down Chrono!

"84…85…86…" A soft voice probably belonging to a young adolescent boy considering the way it changes pitch every so often is heard by a maid carrying a basket full of clean and neatly folded clothes as she walks along the corridor.

The corridor in question is on the third floor of the main building of the Tristein Kingdom Magic Academy and if you haven't figured out by now, the maid is Siesta. _Could Miss Vallière be awake already? Wonder what she's making Chrono count? _Is her thought as she approaches the door leading to the room of the inhabitants in question.

Opening the door as she reaches it, she is greeted by the sight of bright morning sunlight streaming through the room's only window with Louise still sleeping soundly on her bed, answering her first question. Looking for clues to placate her other curiosity, she looks down at Chrono's haystack, where the previously chained up Chrono should be. Yes, in Siesta's mind, this haystack now belongs to Chrono and finds him doing push ups, in the manly manner, with knees held off the ground. Her ever present smile widening(1), Siesta puts down the basket of clothes gently and shuffles quietly over to Chrono who seems to have not noticed her entry into the room as he continues his push ups.

Chrono had in fact noticed her approaching presence before she had even reached the doorway, but was determined to get at least the 100 push ups in his daily training regimen done before responding to her. Turning his head to face her after his 100th push up, Siesta's hand that was aiming to rub the top of his head, ended up rubbing his cheek causing him to lose balance and to collapse onto the pile of hay, cheek first. Spitting out a few strands of hay that had made it into his mouth due to the impromptu descent, Chrono glares angrily at Siesta. "What did you do that for?"

Chrono shakes his fist as he stands up to face her. Unperturbed by his outburst, maybe she's used to dealing with males younger than her, Siesta replies fondly. "I couldn't help it! You looked so cute with that determined look on your face. I wish my little brothers were as disciplined when they were your age."

Glomping(2) him again like she did earlier this morning, it dissipates Chrono's rage as he is once again suffocated in between her mammaries and stunned.

Letting him go, Siesta heads for the basket of clothing she had placed down earlier and retrieves two sets of lingerie, a white collared shirt and a short, pleated black skirt. "Here are Miss Vallière's clothes. If you need to get anything else washed for her, please come find me on campus, I'll be happy to show you where and how to wash them."

Receiving no response from Chrono, due to him being dazed, she drapes the folded clothing on top of his head, picks up the basket and walks out of the room, closing the door silently behind her.

Regaining his senses, Chrono takes the clothing off his head and walks towards the poster bed where Louise is still sound asleep. _I've been having mind blanks a lot this past day haven't I? Don't know if it's the environment or the people. The number of times I've been blasted or suffocated recently can't be good for my health. _

Ripping off the blanket off Louise's sleeping form in one quick motion. Chrono roughly shakes her causing her to slowly open her eyes. Stretching, Louise glances unfocused at Chrono's face and asks in lethargic surprise.

"Oh? Who are you?"

Dumping the neatly folded pile of clothes Siesta gave him onto Louise's chest, he says in a disgruntled tone. "Here, your clothes."

Staring uncomprehendingly at the pile of clothing on her chest, she lets out a dumbfounded enquiry. "Huh?"

Chrono explains firmly, placing his hands on his hips in a stern manner as he does so. "You told me to prepare them in the morning didn't you?"

Sleepily Louise rubs her eyes and sits up on her bed, comprehension dawning she turns her head to face Chrono.

"Oh yeah, my familiar. I summoned you yesterday." Louise states in a slow and soft tone as if clarifying this information to herself.

Holding up the chain that still connected his neck to the poster bed as Louise gets out of bed begins to put on her underwear, Chrono asks. "Hey, can you take this off already?"

Louise answers with a direct. "No!"

In response to this blatant rejection to freeing him, Chrono then emphasises with an angry tirade. "I won't run away! I told you that I wasn't running away many times already. Where am I meant to run? I'm not even from this place!"

Raising her voice in annoyance, Louise replies while pegging her folded school uniform at him. "Fine! I got it!"

Catching the pile of clothing, Chrono asks in confusion, his voice still tinged with anger. "What the?"

With her facial expression neutral, Louise commands. "Dress me!"

Chrono angrily replies. "Do it yourself!"

Scrunching up her face in anger, Louise replies in an argumentative tone. "When there is a servant, a noble never puts on their own clothes!"

_Noble? She's probably another one of those rich arrogant people like that playboy Guich_é _that think they own everything_. _This attitude is probably why she's the class loser! _

Out loud, Chrono matches Louise's tone and rhetorically asks. "What do you mean, noble? Stop being so spoiled!"

Cutting off anything else Chrono might've said, Louise spitefully turns her head to the side and says. "Fine, then no breakfast for you! I won't take off the chain either."

Realising his own position and the futility of arguing with Louise, Chrono gives up and dresses Louise.

After finishing the last touches of her uniform, draping Louise's uniform cape around her shoulders, Chrono holds up the chain binding him and states grumpily. "You promised!"

Looking at Chrono as if displeased with his attitude, Louise produces a key from within her uniform cape.

"Guess there's no choice." Louise says and moves up to Chrono, bending down as to give her a better view and to access the lock on the strap around his neck.

_There was a key! Why did I never think to look for the key? _Chrono mentally berates himself.

Thinking that Chrono was staring at her while he thought this, Louise asks. "What?"

Realising that he had been staring at Louise, Chrono answers. "Ah, nothing at all!"

Throwing the strap and chain off to the side as she manages to undo the lock, then walking off towards the door, Louise commands. "Let's go!"

Surprised, Chrono asks. "Huh? Where to?"

Turning around to face him, Louise answers as if talking to someone who was criminally stupid. "Breakfast of course!"

Louise then walks out, Chrono quickly following her.

The meal room is a grand hall with chequered marble floors, exquisite golden chandeliers filling the room with light hanging from the ceiling and three very long wooden tables easily 50 meters in length and around 2 meters wide side by side running through the centre. Even with these monstrous dining tables occupying it as well as large stone statues lining the walls, there was still so much floor space and with the ceiling high, it gave off a sense as if you were in something truly amazing. Seated at the tables were many young people dressed in the same style of uniform as Louise creating a rumble of mixed voices similar to those found in school cafeterias almost anywhere. It is to this scene that the great doors at one end of the hall open, letting in Louise followed closely by Chrono. Eyes from most everyone who were seated there followed the pair in amusement and curiosity, causing the ambient noise to increase as rumours and hearsay was spread around. Typical of what was being said about the pair, the buxom redhead, Kirche Zerbst explains the commotion to the blond haired blue eyed Montmonrency. "Here they are. The rumoured run away familiar and his master…"

Walking along the long row of seats that line the tables within the meal room, Louise suddenly stops next to an empty chair and closes her eyes as if waiting for something, letting Chrono look upon the table.

_What a waste of food, they can't possibly finish all of this. These rich kids really have no idea how many families they can feed with this. _Chrono thinks, shaking his head at the amount of expensive looking food on the table.

_Ah well, who am I to complain if I get to eat this. _His stomach growling since he did not eat lunch or dinner yesterday, Chrono's thoughts are interrupted as one of Louise's eyebrows start twitching in annoyance, tired of waiting.

Impatiently Louise says. "Hurry up and pull out the chair! It's discourteous of you."

Looking at Louise and answering, "Ok, ok…" Chrono realises what she is referring to and pulls out the chair for her to sit in.

_Guess some customs are consistent through multiple cultures. I remember asking why Admiral Graham did this for mother whenever he went with us to a formal dinner, he said it was politeness or something. _

Seeing an empty chair next to Louise and oblivious to the curious stares from others around them, Chrono pulls it out and sits in it, trying to remember the customs for the usage of the many utensils similar to those Admiral Graham had taught him to use. A tap on his shoulder interrupts, causing him to look at Louise who had a mixture of disgust and exasperation on her face. She was also pointing downward at the floor. Not knowing what she wanted, his gaze follows the direction she indicated where he finds a slightly cracked plate. Studying the plate, Chrono says. "I didn't break it, I haven't even touched anything yet!"

Louise then explains firmly. "Only nobles can sit here. A commoner like you sits on the floor…"

Hearing this, Chrono stands up and exclaims in surprise "No way!" causing giggles to erupt around them.

Looking around and sighing, he does as he was told and waits, sitting there.

The hall having filled up by now, the seat Chrono vacated now occupied by someone else.

The students of the academy had begun to recite what seemed to be a before meal prayer. "To our great founder Brimir and the queen, her highness, I am gratefully thankful for your modesty."

_Modest! This piece of bread they gave me is what's modest! _Chrono thinks.

As the so called nobles start their meal, Chrono picks up the tiny piece of bread in question and bites into it. The bread is so tough, it causes tears to form due to the amount of strength he needed to tear it apart with his jaws.

_Calm down Chrono! _He thinks to himself, but what he really wanted to do was to blast everyone there into dust for this outrage!

**-Author's Notes-**

Hi everyone, hope you enjoyed TnC Chapter 8. A slightly longer chapter, but I got too excited. There were two points that if I couldn't find a way to insert that wouldn't have disrupted the flow of the story.

(1) I wanted to make a reference to the manga 'Hayate no Gotoku' here. According to this, the way to portray the spirit of a true maid is to always have a smile at all times, fake or not.

(2) The second point is the word glomp, it isn't actually an English word, but readers of anime fanfiction will be very familiar with it. It means a big strangling full body hug, usually one that is inescapable.

On another note, I've gone back and edited where applicable, Tristein, to Tristain since the Kingdom of Tristain is in the country of Tristainia. I've noticed that I've used both spellings, so I did this for consistency.

Thank you to Skurosagi for giving me my first review, although it was short and not particularly useful to improving the story, it was positive so it was much appreciated.

As a final word, I have finally managed to get two affirmative responses from people on ffnet to beta-read for me. While they haven't done so yet, please welcome Ms. Chidori Sagara and Seigetsu Ren. They have other commitments such as real life and their own stories, but look forward to an improvement when they become active in editing my story. Sorry for the long authors note and thank you for reading. See you next chapter!


	9. YOU LIAR!

Tsukaima no Chrono

Chapter 9: YOU LIAR!

Having finished his breakfast far earlier than his master, not surprising considering it consisted of one small stale piece of extremely tough bread, Chrono follows Louise as she stands up and walks out the grand doors of the meal room.

"Normally, during a meal, familiars are supposed to be on standby outside. It's a special request for you to be next to me." Louise explains in an arrogant voice, implying that Chrono should be grateful as she descends the stairs leading to the meal room.

Feeling spiteful due to the relatively puny breakfast he received Chrono replies. "I'd rather have been off somewhere else!"

This causes a vein to throb out of the flash of anger Louise experienced. As they turn left at the bottom of the stairs, we see that the pair are headed to what seems to be an outdoor tea or socialisation area consisting of white tables and chairs with various maids bearing drinks to the students sitting there. Considering that they just came out from breakfast, Chrono points towards the scene and asks. "What is everyone doing there?"

Having calmed down from the brief anger she had felt due to Chrono's jibe before, Louise answers. "Oh, there's a break from lessons for the second years today. It's to promote communication with the familiars they just summoned."

After hearing that, Chrono thinks. _I think I would've been better off if I couldn't communicate, at least then I wouldn't have to wash her clothing. _

As Chrono and Louise pass by the buxom redheaded figure of Kirche Zerbst, she addresses them.

"Oh?" Kirche says in recognition causing the pair to look down at her kneeling next to a big red salamander.

"Oh, that's a nice salamander." Chrono says, studying it. _Don't get to see those things as familiars often on Mid-childa, they're notoriously bad tempered and tend to set things on fire accidentally. _

"You're pretty well informed for a commoner, good job recognising her." Kirche praises Chrono.

In response Chrono says. "You should put it on a leash. They tend to be dangerous!"

Chuckling, Kirche replies. "Don't worry! A contracted familiar is absolutely obedient to its master."

The salamander responds as if in agreement, making a nasally chirp. Sweat dropping and smiling uncertainly, Chrono thinks. _I'm a familiar and I certainly ain't. _

Rubbing her salamander's back, Kirche coos. "You won't run away will you, Flame?" Causing the salamander, Flame to shrill in contentment, a wide smile as close to a human's as Chrono ever seen on it's face.

Recognising the hidden insult, Louise defends herself verbally. "Mind your own business!"

Having fun agitating Louise, Kirche stands up close to Louise, giving her a height advantage and taunts with a placid expression and an amused tone. "Hey, you probably just grabbed a commoner that was just walking by, didn't you? You deceived us quite well with that explosion."

Louise responds desperately. "You're wrong! I properly summoned and he just came out!"

Chrono then thinks, his sadistic side kicking in. _I'd tell this redhead the truth about me actually being summoned, but Louise defending herself like this is just too funny. _

"Well he's just fitting for you isn't he? Louise the Zero." Kirche replies to Louise then walks away, laughing artificially with a stereo typical "Ohohohoho!"

Louise then clenches her teeth and narrows her eyes in anger and causing veins to throb visibly on her forehead and her shaking fist. Grinding out a "What's with that woman?"

Louise turns her anger onto Chrono and screams at him, the sudden loud voice startling him. "Don't just stand there! At least go get me some tea!"

Since Louise was now sitting at a table and sipping a cup of tea with eyes in silent anger which Chrono fetched off one of the maids. Chrono decided that he didn't want to be too close to the fuming pink haired girl. Walking off feeling rather depressed as most people do after being yelled at for seemingly no reason, he is intercepted by somebody else's familiar. Stopping due to the presence impeding his way, Chrono looks up. _Oh, a bug-bear, that's quite a rare creature. _

Not getting a visible response out of Chrono, the bug-bear suddenly zooms in towards Chrono's face and blinks, giving him a close up view of the huge head-sized eye. Moving backwards due to the surprise invasion of his private space, Chrono bumps roughly into someone behind him, his eyes glimpsing the shadow of something falling. Quickly turning and darting low to catch the falling object, he manages to catch it, revealing an intact but slightly disfigured cake on top of a plate.

Hearing soft clapping behind him, Chrono turns to apologise to the person he bumped into. Not raising his head as a measure of humility, Chrono says. "Please excuse me, I'm sorry for bumping into you, but I managed to save the plate and the cake."

Offering up said items, the plate of cake was taken from him. Chrono then feels a hand rubbing the top of his head. _Why does everyone do that to me?_

"That was amazing Chrono, you moved so fast." Recognizing the voice, Chrono looks up to see the face of Siesta.

"Oh it's you Siesta, thank you for helping me this morning." Chrono says gratefully.

Cheerfully Siesta replies. "It's alright, everyone was so excited when I told them that I had met the rumoured commoner that Miss Vallière summoned as her familiar."

Letting out a thoughtful hum, Chrono thinks. _Even Siesta, a maid, is referring to me as a commoner. I wonder what the requirements are to become nobility here if even she is one. _

So as not to cause suspicion, Chrono tilts his head in a thoughtful manner and poses the subject without directly asking. "Well, I don't really understand this noble and commoner thing…"

This prompts Siesta to reply in a stunned tone. "Huh? The people who can cast magic are nobles and everyone else is a commoner, didn't you know?"

_Eh, if that's the case I'd be a noble too if I can show the people that I can use magic, but unlike Louise, I don't sense any magic from Siesta, maybe they identify magic in a different way? _

Out loud Chrono says as if understanding. "Ah, I see. So that's what it was. Are you a magic user too?"

Siesta quickly replies as if in shock. "Absolutely not! I have been blessed to serve here! I'm just a mere commoner like you."

At this point Chrono's informative conversation with Siesta was interrupted by an intrusive. "Hey!" Much to Chrono's displeasure.

Turning to the source of the rude interruption, Chrono and Siesta set their eyes on the blond playboy Guiché who is sitting next to a blond girl with a red ribbon, her back turned to the pair of them. Guiché while rubbing what seems to be a giant mole puts his other hand up and asks. "Is the cake still not ready?"

Siesta quickly replies. "Yes, right away!"

As Siesta begins to head off to deliver the cake, Chrono stops her, his eyes narrowing at Guiché in anger.

Putting on a helpful expression Chrono takes the plate of cake off Siesta and says. "Here, as thanks for your help, I'll take this to him."

Siesta, uncomfortable with the fact that the cake was slightly disfigured says to Chrono. "But that's been…"

Chrono reassures her. "It's ok…" and gives her a good guy pose(1).

Remembering Guiché's snob like behaviour and arrogance from his first night on this world, Chrono thinks. _I was right! He is a playboy, already chatting up a different girl to Katie already. This is just perfect for that irritating moron!_

As Chrono approaches the table with the plate of cake in hand, he picks up bits and pieces of Guiché's conversation with the other girl.

"I've chatted with her, Belldandy, all night long." Guiché says proudly.

Chrono, not knowing that Guiché is referring to his familiar, is internally aghast. _Isn't he ashamed, talking about his conquests with a girl! _

The other girl who Chrono doesn't know but we do, Montmorency, is rubbing what seems to be a small gecko replies in what seems to be accepting disbelief. "Ah, I see…All…night…long, right?" A look of disappointment appears on the girls face.

Guiché replies with what seems to be baseless pride while looking at the giant mole he is rubbing with googly eyes."Yes…These intellectual eyes, this deeply sensational touch!"

Rubbing his nose with the giant mole's, Guiché continues. "She was absolutely intended to become my familiar."

At this point, Chrono has become thoroughly disgusted with Guiché. _He was referring to his familiar! Any normal person from Mid-childa who could've heard his speech right now would think that he's a pervert into bestiality! _

Montmorency sighs, and looks away, her eyes closing in disappointment and says in a neutral tone referring to Guiché's nose rubbing. "For now, at the very least, never do that in front of me again."

By this time, Chrono has reached the table. Plonking down the plate onto the table like he has seen waiters at restaurants do, he reports to the blond duo. "Here you go."

Not looking at Chrono and therefore not recognising him, Guiché places another order. "Ah, also please bring me another tea."

Looking at Montmorency, Guiché praises. "Your familiar is also cute, just like you!"

Chrono is now laughing internally at that line. _Ahaha…you're saying that she looks like a lizard! Can't wait to see you get slapped for that! _

To Chrono's surprise, Montmorency replies happily. "You're as flattering as ever!"

Chrono then hears a familiar sounding reply from Guiché. "Well, I cannot tell lies in front of your eyes!"

Chrono snorts _I've heard that before… This guy really needs to get a job in recycling… _

In response to Guiché's line, Montmorency puts on a serious expression and states accusingly. "But recently, I've been hearing a rumour that you're also dating a first year!"

_I can almost bet you he's not only dating one first year! _Chrono thinks.

As if startled, a standard guilty reflex, Guiché tries to reassure Montmorency with another familiar sounding line. "Nonsense! There cannot be…"

Chrono interrupts, unable to hold back any longer and completing Guiché's speech in a sing song tone. "…any deceit in my feelings towards you!~~ right?" causing both of the blond duo to look at him, Guiché in shock.

Snickering, Chrono begins to walk off. Guiché manages to utter. "Wha…what are you talking about?"

Stopping suddenly in response and making a motion as if realising something Chrono states with an ecstatic expression. "Oh, I got it now. The colours of the capes represent different grade levels! Black is for second years. The kind girl last night, wearing brown, is a first year. I see… I see…"

This causes Guiché's expression to be even more incredulous as Montmorency asks Guiché. "What is he talking about?"

Unable to defend himself, Guiché seeks to divert the attention. Standing up, Guiché orders Chrono, somehow not recognising him. "Hurry back to your duties, waiter!"

Turning around and stick out his tongue while pulling down his eyelid, Chrono replies. "Eh… I'm not a waiter."

Having recognised who he was speaking to now, Guiché says. "You are… Louise the Zero's…"

Cutting Guiché off and putting on an innocent act Chrono replies in false humility, giving a slight bow then attempts to escape. "Thank you very much for last night. Well then…"

After hearing this, Montmorency demands from Guiché in a more urgent tone. "Hey, Guiché. What is he talking about?"

Panicking, Guiché tries to explain. "You see… I told you that last night I ran into that familiar and stuff happened… That's all!"

As Chrono tries to move out of range of any retribution while staying close enough to witness the spectacle that he placed Guiché into, he passes by the girl from last night who had introduced herself to him as Katie. Seeing that Guiché had also noticed Katie approaching trying to run away with Montmorency to save himself, Chrono's little known, but large, sadistic streak kicked in. An evil grin forming on his face, he helpfully suggests to Katie who mutters Guiché's name as she looks around. "You're looking for Guiché right? You can find him over there!" Chrono then points in the direction Guiché had moved off to with Montmorency.

Katie responds gratefully, rubbing the top of Chrono's head. _I'm going to end up with perpetually messy hair if I stay in this place._ "Thank you young mister familiar."

Katie's expression brightens as she spots Guiché, she waves at Guiché excitedly and while running towards him, shouts "Guiché!" attracting his attention.

Chrono chuckles as he watches the events unfold. _Let the circus begin! _

Seeing that Katie had found him, Guiché quickly pulls his arm out of Montmonrency's grasp as if distancing his relationship with her. Surprised at Guiché's sudden action, Montmonrency spots the approaching Katie, then looks closely at Guiché, studying him. "I've been searching all over for you, Guiché!" Katies exclaims excitedly causing Montmorency's eyes to narrow.

Katie continues in excitement, oblivious to Montmorency's ire. "This is the homemade soufflé I was talking about last night. I thought it would be perfect for today's tea party!"

Replying as if humbled, Guiché stutters out. "What… why… thank you."

Montmonrency then asks "Last night?" causing Guiché to look at her guiltily, responding without his usual confidence. "You see… well…"

Chrono interrupts again at this point, having ignored his own safety to get a better view, in his mind, it was worth the danger. "Isn't that great? You were saying how much you wanted to try it…" Chrono says in false comaraderie.

Guiché stutters at him in inarticulate panic. "You…you!"

Continuing with his act, Chrono says. "What? It's the truth isn't it?"

Montmorency questions Guiché. "Guiché, what's the meaning of this?"

Trying to feign ignorance, Guiché attempts to change the focus to Chrono again. "Hey, what are you talking about? You're creating a superfluous misunderstanding between these girls!"

Having noticed the commotion between the 4 people due to the shouting, the rest of the occupants in the outdoor tea setting begin to close in.

A blond haired round fellow, with an owl sitting on his shoulder asks. "What, what's this. It seems Guiché is starting something with that commoner familiar."

Ignoring the curious crowd that has gathered around them, Chrono continues to taunt Guiché. "What's this misunderstanding? You brought it on yourself by two timing!"

This statement causing Guiché to panic further as Katie asks as if about to cry.

"Two timing?" Montmonrency firmly accuses, anger in her eyes.

"So you were putting your hands on this first year!" She then scrunches up her face and grinds her teeth, her hands underneath her chin as if ready to throw a tantrum.

Trying to pacify her, Guiché says. "You're mistaken, Montmorency the Perfume! Please do not warp your rose like face with anger. This is some type of mistake!"

Katie then speaks up in a sad pleading voice. "How mean, you said we were together!"

Unable to deal with both the girls together, he begs. "In any case, both of you please calm down…"

The two girls then both angrily shout, betrayal in their expressions. "YOU LIAR!" Montmorency taking it a step further sending Guiché off his feet with a loud slap causing the now large gather crowd to laugh.

The round fellow from before, who seems to be well aquainted with Guiché says while laughing. "You got dumped Guiché! Well it was your own doing!"

His reputation tarnished and suffering humiliation from the hand mark still imprinted onto his cheek, Guiche then stands and speaks in barely restrained rage at Chrono. "It seems that you do not know the proper etiquette towards a noble."

Chrono smugly responds. "Unfortunately for you, you wouldn't be a noble where I came from, not that any special etiquette exists for them."

Bearing a grin as if in satisfaction, Guiché growls out. "Very well. I challenge you to a duel!"

**-Author's Notes-**

Hello all, that was chapter 9 of TnC. Truthfully I'm not that happy with it, as it was much longer than planned. However, there was no good place in the action to break up the chapter, hence I'll leave you guys on a cliff hanger.

There was only one point I wished to make in this chapter.

(1) This is the thumbs up pose that Maito Gai and Rock Lee made famous in the Naruto anime.

Look forward to Chapter 10, it will contain the first fight scene in the anime, with Chrono, replacing Saito in dueling Guiché. Thanks for reading.


	10. Give me all you got!

Tsukaima no Chrono

Chapter 10: Give me all you got!

In an open space surrounded by a crowd of caped young people, stands two people facing each other, one with blond hair, blue eyes dressed in the same garb as the majority of the crowd with what seems to be a rose in his hand, the other, blue haired was dressed in a simple dark blue shirt and trousers combination. The fact that the blond was waving the rose in front of him as he spoke as if intending to strike the figure half his size in front of him made an amusing sight.

The smaller figure, Chrono asks incredulously "A duel?"

The blond, Guiché replies in a serious tone, holding his rose like object to his chest and expression implying that he was noble "Precisely! For a person whose status is that of a commoner and a familiar to have disgraced me and made two ladies cry!"

Guiché then whips his rose holding hand to the side and leans forward in a dramatic manner as if to show righteous fury.

In a smug and flippant tone Chrono replies "Not only cry, I'd add that they were pretty pissed too!" causing laughter from the assembled crowd.

Provoked by that response, Guiché angrily thrusts his rose straight in the direction of Chrono and says "You'd better be ready! I'll be waiting in the grounds in front of the vestri."

Guiché then stalks away from the area leaving a smug looking Chrono standing.

From the side, a pink haired girl stomps towards Chrono and grabs his hand to pull him yelling rhetorically "What were you doing!"

The now annoyed due to having his smug moment interrupted Chrono replies "What do you mean?"

Louise as she drags Chrono along replies in a worried and hurried tone "It's not a matter to explain. What were you thinking when you foolishly accepted that duel?"

Hearing the answer and noticing that Louise had dragged him quite a distance now, Chrono asks "Where are you taking me?"

In a matter of fact tone, Louise replies "To apologise to Guiché. If we hurry, he might forgive you."

Changing to a firm stance such that he could no longer be dragged along, Chrono resolutely replies "Don't want to! Why do I have to apologise to that moron?"

Alarmed, Louise turns around to face Chrono and says, panicky. "You really don't understand anything! A commoner can never overcome a noble! You'll be lucky if you get out of this just hurt!"

Chrono thinks _I'm a noble too by your world's definition of the term, you just don't know it. If I can find a chance to learn your world's magic and demonstrate it so that I don't break the Prime Directive, I'd put you in your place. _

Out loud Chrono replies confidently, tearing his hand out of Louise's. "Just watch me take him down!"

Turning his head towards two nobles standing nearby, one of who we recognize is the fat blond kid who seemed to know Guiché well. Chrono asks "Hey! Which way to the grounds in front of the vestri?"

Amused, the noble responds, pointing the way with his finger "Ah, that way!"

This causing Louise to shout at the fat kid and identifying him to Chrono at the same time "Malicorne!"

Saying thanks to Malicorne, Chrono runs off in the direction Malicorne had indicated. Behind him Chrono could hear Louise yelling at him to wait, Malicorne saying "Wow, this is a sight!"

Louise utters with a seething expression. "Geez! Why is my familiar so selfish!"

Catching up to Chrono, Louise and Malicorne find themselves in a crowd similar to the one where Guiché issued his challenge, only that they were now in front of the vestry instead of near the outdoor tea area.

Off to the side, they hear the redhead Kirche comment to a light blue haired girl next to her. "She really knows how to entertain us."

We also see the maid Siesta looking worriedly in the crowd this time. In the middle of the gathering, Guiché says to Chrono, arms folded across his chest, rose in one hand, standing close enough to give an intimidating presence in comparison with the diminutive Chrono looking much like a high school student bullying an elementary school kid. "I complement you for not running away and coming here."

Chrono replies "Who would run away from you?"

The two combatants are interrupted by a shout from Louise as she runs up to the feuding pair "Wait! Guiché! End this nonsense! It's forbidden to duel!"

Guiché replies to Louise "What's forbidden is a duel between nobles!"

Pointing his rose, which Chrono had long since identified as a dressed up wand, a primitive magic amplification device, at Chrono. Guiché continues "He's a commoner. There's no problem."

Chrono narrows his eyes as he hears this. Louise responds to Guiché in panic, stuttering as she does so. "That's... because there was never anything like this!"

Amused at her distress, Guiché slyly asks Louise. "Louise, could it be that this commoner has moved your girly heart?"

This acquiring an indignant outburst in response from Louise. "What do you think you're implying! He's just a kid! How do you expect me to just watch my familiar get his ass handed to him?"

Unable to stand the tension, Siesta rushes in and holds Chrono protectively. She then begs Guiché "My lord, I know that I'm out of place, but please forgive him, he's just a child!"

This earns laughter and sympathetic jeers at Guiché from the rest of the crowd. "Yeah Guiché! Stop picking on kids!"

Guiché angrily shouts back. "Shut up! Whatever you all have to say will not change the fact that the duel has already begun!"

Waving his rose wand in front of him and causing a petal to fall to the floor, he summons a metal golem that looks like a female in armour with the face of a fox holding a spear around the same height as Guiché with Chrono studying the process intently.

_Wonder if I can copy this magic to make myself a noble? Golem summoning using a physical object as an anchor eh. So far I've witnessed these forms of magic usage in this world, spells done via verbal chanting using a wand as a focus, spells via a physical object and a focus such as the spell just now, mere uncontrolled channelling of magical energy through a focus like Louise and rune inscribed magic such as those in their lamps. No computer compiled magic codes exist for obvious reasons nor the imaginary runic circles that modern Mid-childan and Belkans use either. I could always just cause an explosion like Louise and declare myself a noble. But first I want to have some fun with Guiché here. _Analysing the golem in an instant, Chrono smirks. _This is going to be easy, an 'E' rank golem like this one might give a normal human a hard time, but since it's directly controlled by Guiché I'll be fine. _

Motioning for both Siesta and Louise to move away, Chrono begins magically strengthening his body with no outwards visual cues.

Guiche declares in ignorance of Chrono's thoughts and preparation "My name is Guiche the Bronze. Therefore the bronze golem, Valkyrie, shall be your opponent."

Unsurprised by the golem and heavily experienced and trained in combat unlike his compatriot in another universe(1). Chrono enters the Strike Arts(2) stance the favoured martial art by the Mid-childan magic academies and in fact all Mid-childa for its strike focused unarmed combat, easily redirecting the heavy straight punch from the Valkyrie Guiché sent at him with the back of his wrist and grabbing the elbow using the momentum as it goes past to flip the golem over him and away in one smooth motion. Rushing towards Guiché at what seemed to be a natural pace so as to strike before the golem could recover, Guiché back-pedals to maintain the distance.

Smiling Chrono taunts as he chases Guiché. "That's cheap! Using magic against someone who supposedly can't like that. I was expecting a good fist fight!"

Smiling back as he circles around the area to keep Chrono away from him, Guiché responds "Isn't it obvious that since all sorcerers are nobles, they would use magic to fight?"

Looking on at the duel from a safe distance Louise yells "You understand now? A commoner can't defeat a sorcerer!"

By this time the golem had caught back up to Chrono striking at him with light swipes from the spear it was holding so as not to get thrown again. Using his small size and therefore better agility, Chrono dodges them with practiced ease, seeing the paths the tip of the spear moved in. _Oh? Guiché's learned from his mistakes. I've got to get this spear out of its hands or at least get a weapon of my own. _

Maybe recognising Chrono's distraction Guiché makes the golem thrust the spear at Chrono, creating just the opening Chrono was looking for. Jumping slightly and using his hand to push on the side of the spear thereby removing himself from the spear's path. Chrono, still airborne, grabs the now overextended spear and shoves his two feet first into the oncoming head of the golem, ripping the spear out of its hands.

Angered at seeing the defeat of his Valkyrie and that Chrono had now obtained a weapon. Guiché states "Oh, It seems that I have held back too much! Since you seemed to want that spear so much you can keep it! It won't save you from what's coming!"

Confident that he could handle anything that Guiché threw at him, Chrono swipes the spear around himself in a flashy manner, showing off to the crowd. Getting into a stance, holding the spear with one hand resting the spear in the crook of the same arm behind him. Chrono beckons towards Guiché with his free hand. "Give me all you got."

**-Author's Notes-**

Hi all, that was chapter 10 of TnC. This is the first fight scene that I have written ever so I hope it was at least understandable. The fight will be finished next chapter where Chrono will first visibly use his Mid-childan magic visibly in front of the crowd but I still have to work out the details since I changed the storyline due to suggestions from reviews. I was originally not intending for Mid-childan magic to appear until at least the battle at Albion with Chrono first using this world's magic after Louise first brings him to one of her classes, but it seems as if people can't wait that long.

Notes I would like to make:

(1) Just in case it wasn't obvious, I was referring to Saito.

(2) Strike Arts is a canon reference from volume 1 chapter 3 of the official continuation of MGLN Strikers, MGLN Vivio, or it could be Vivid, I can't tell, the cover it is written like this "o' "

**Lord Arkan **glad to see that you're enjoying my story, thanks for the review.

**Sexy Neko Hibiki **Being a lover of long chapters and stories myself, I can tell you that I don't like them when they become too congested or don't flow. Knowing that I'm still new to writing fanfiction I'm acutely aware of my own limits. Furthermore both of my possible beta-readers are only willing to read chapters ~1500 words in length, Chapter 9 was pushing 3000. I will attempt to write longer if I get enough reviews by other people requesting me to do so. However, this will severely lower my rate of updating.

**Jubi Knight **Thank you for being the first to provide me with a review including an actual opinion and suggestions for improvement. I have replanned my story from this chapter onwards to bring forward the deviations from canon. I also apologise for seeming to take most of Saito's lines, it's just that Chrono's verbal character is so similar to Saito, except that he's brave and a genius, whereas Saito admits to being slow and a coward. As for making this into my own story, I actually want the main events in the timeline for ZnT to happen, with drastic changes. I am not particularly going to leave that entire timeline alone as I wish to keep this a fanfiction and not an original fiction using character names and designs from the anime and once again thanks for your detailed review.

Hoped you all enjoyed reading. See you next chapter.


	11. Get off of me!

Tsukaima no Chrono

Chapter 11: Get off of me!

"Give me all you got!" Chrono taunts while he flashily manoeuvres into a staff fighting stance completing the action before the golem which he obtained his current weapon, a spear, had even landed from his attack, gaining applause and laughter from the gathered crowd.

Narrowing his eyes in anger, Guiché replies in a cold tone. "So be it, commoner, for this humiliation no amount of begging from you or your master will make me spare your life!"

Waving his rose like wand in front of him, Guiché unleashes a vast shower of petals summoning more Valkyrie type golems similar to the one that Chrono just defeated wherever they had landed. In mere seconds what was just a single opponent became a veritable army for Chrono to face against.

_Guiché must be over stretching his magical abilities _Chrono thinks as he watches the golems rise slowly from the ground where the petals landed. _It's taken a whole minute already, even thogh I'm holding back, any competent soldier regardless of whether they had magic or not would've dispatched him already. _

Chrono continues to watch as the golems rise out of the ground. _How incompetent is he? If it takes him this long to summon this many golems, how does he expect to control them in a decent manner? I can't be bothered waiting anymore. _

Chrono charges towards Guiché intending to knock him out with a single punch, watching Guiché's mouth open and close in comically slow motion along with the rest of the crowd's before realising that his speed was much faster than it should be.

_Eh, did I forget to limit my boost in my excitement while I was showing off? _Not wanting to reveal his magical abilities or give question to his sudden performance increase, Chrono mentally cancels all his enhancements, the sudden change in bodily coordination causing him to trip and plummet to the ground.

The crowd and Guiché were unaware of Chrono's plight as they looked towards Chrono to see his reaction to the sudden change in the balance of power. What they actually saw was Chrono quickly disappearing from his location followed by a loud sonic boom and a large dust cloud billowing in Guiché's direction followed by a wave of earth.

"Not so confident..." Guiché is unable to complete his taunt as he chokes on the dirt thrown at him, some of it managing to get into his mouth.

Spitting the dirt out in disgust, Guiché spots Chrono wedged face first into a 4 meter long trough right in front of him. Seeing the chance to finish Chrono off, Guiché makes all of his golems charge, jump or dash towards Chrono spears raised and ready to stab into the poor kid, making Louise and Siesta gasp worriedly in fright. As he pushes himself off the ground while shaking the dirt and grass out of his hair, Chrono wipes his eyes clear, granting him a view of the hand holding his acquired spear and the brightly shining familiar symbol upon it. 

_Falling like that can't have looked good. Wonder if my master is embarrassed, I know I am. These glowing runes explain why I was suddenly so much faster. That's right I'm a familiar now aren't I? I'm supposed to be granted superior speed and strength while wielding a weapon in order to protect my master. _Chrono then chuckles slightly _That probably counts for her pride as well. _

As Chrono lets the facts sink in he notices the increasingly shadowed area around him, in alarm he looks up, watching as Guiché's many golems thrusting their spears downwards at him. Panicking, Chrono lets the survival instincts instilled in him from his enforcer training run wild in an attempt to protect himself.

The crowd steps back in awe as Chrono uses the barrier, one of the three types of active defence(1) Mid-childans employ, a bright blue light blasting all the attacking golems away from him, as the barrier ejects all the kinetic energy it had nullified allowing Chrono to stand up. Despite his internal chaos, Chrono's external demeanour was positively calm and chilly. Multiple small, blue glowing balls of raw magic forming around Chrono then darted out in all directions, streaking through the air looking much like plasma shot from particle projectile cannons(2), indiscriminately heading towards anything and anyone that might be considered a threat, forcing the majority of the students watching his duel with Guiché to take cover behind the nearby shrubs and trees. Loud thumps were heard as the magical projectiles slammed into Golems and vegetation alike with a force akin to a punch from a professional boxer causing bark and golems to fly. Chrono regains his senses as he watches Guiché who was standing in the middle of the field with nowhere to hide, be hit by two of the bright blue globes of energy, once in the stomach then the jaw sending him to the ground, defeated.

Feeling dejected at his own incompetence Chrono mentally berates himself. _No! I used my magic in front of these people. How should I explain this? I guess I should just come clean and tell them I can use magic. It wasn't any of the advanced magic requiring a magic circle compiled by a device anyway._

Looking around at the damage caused by him, Chrono sees many eyes watching him, peeking out from behind their cover. Some of those eyes were in awe and admiration and others in fear, like Louise and Guiché's, the ones that made him feel most depressed were those of Siesta as if she had been betrayed. Chrono throws down the spear he had been holding and starts walking towards Siesta who begins to run away. Chrono is interrupted by a shaking Louise who has managed to gather the courage to approach him. Louise timidly asks, caressing his bruised and dirty face. "Are you alright?"

Chrono giving a short, tired response. "Yeah. This isn't enough to take me down."

Walking towards Guiché who backs away while sitting on the ground in fright, Chrono says, his posture proud and confident. "Do you realise your position, your mistakes and what you must do to repent in order to regain your honour or do you still want to continue this duel?"

Lowering his head in defeat, Guiché blurts out, losing the duel "I give up."

A huge cheer rose from the now reassembled crowd.

Guiché continues to speak in a low voice. "You weren't a commoner after all, it is no wonder I lost. A noble of your skill level, I will make it up to you for this challenge."

Hearing that, Chrono fills with rage intending to correct Guiché. "That was not my point at all! You need to treat everyone equally..."

Chrono continues the sentence in his mind as he loses both the strength to speak or stand. ...w_ith respect. Guess that duel took alot out of me after all. _

Chrono then completely blacks out forcing Louise onto the ground under him as she attempts to catch him causing her to exclaim in surprise. "Oi! Be careful!" Only to be responded to by persistent snoring.

"He's asleep?" Unable to move Louise struggles in vain as she yells. "Hey! You're heavy! Get off me! I'm telling you, get off of me!"

**-Author's notes-**

Hi all, that was TnC chapter 11. Apologies for the late and short update, but I've had no access to the internet or a computer due to an overclocking accident, which I have only just managed to repaired yesterday. Again, this chapter was part of a fight scene which I have no idea whether or not I handle well. I can visualise it in my mind, but whether or not the readers can, I don't know. Please let me know what you think.

Notes for this chapter were:

(1) Vita explains this best as she teaches Subaru in episode 6 of MGLN Strikers.

Barrier magic to nullify hits. Shield magic to repel it. Field magic to surround yourself in order to reduce damage.

(2) Think clan ER PPCs from the battletech games, or the bolts Chrono fires at Fate and Arf when he first appears in MGLN.

On the other hand I was surprised at the number of reviews I received during this hiatus.

**Skurosagi **Thanks for reviewing again. The magic portion was included in this chapter as the duel had not be completed yet. It seems that you prefer out right magical battles. You will see many more in the future.

**Jubi Knight **I hope this met your expectations for Chrono's magic, It's not exactly the standard you would see in Nanoha's battles, but Chrono's devices are both currently damaged and inoperable. It should be relatively canon however if you think back to episode 10 of the original MGLN where Arf attacks Prescia Testarossa. Another example would be of Nanoha training the noobs in Strikers, where she creates balls of energy etc without having RH deployed.

**Shadow Zeranion **Chrono is officially triple A+ rank in terms of pure magical power as quoted in the original MGLN and is a triple A+ ranked mage meaning that he can fully utilise that power. His actual abilities with or without his devices should remain the same since storage devices such as S2U and Durandal, unlike intelligent devices merely store energy and also amplify and help channel magic more efficiently in order to raise the rate at which Chrono can use spells. Technically that means that he would have to know how to form all of his spells without a device. Intelligent devices can learn spells and use them, all of their own volitation as demonstrated by both Mach Calibre when it saves Subaru and frequently by Raising Heart. As per chapter 3 of TnC, Chrono does have both devices on him.

**GeshronTyler **A friend of mine has lent me the light novels for ZnT and I am currently in the process of revising and improving my storyline, of interest is the fact that the anime actually strays very far away from the novels in many parts. It has opened many an opportunity to actually allow Chrono to contact the MGLN world and vice versa. We'll see how it develops as I'm not too sure myself yet.

Sorry about the long authors note, it was almost as long as the chapter. Hope you all continue to enjoy reading TnC, see you next chapter.


	12. There's something to look forward to

Tsukaima no Chrono

Chapter 12: There's something to look forward to

In the darkness, hot flashes of pulsing heat rolling like tidal waves beneath the skin, a ripping feeling like slashes spiralling out of his centre causing a dull throbbing pain that left an uncomfortable hollow sensation. _Ow... What happened? Ah, that's right, I was fighting that idiot Guiché. I remember I won then blacked out. I haven't felt this since I last exhausted my mana pool but since I didn't actually use that much magic, it can only be that the effects of the familiar contract had attempted to use my mana in an inappropriate way. Like learning different martial arts, as the muscles aren't used in the same way, you are only left with pain until they have adapted to the range of movement. I need to wake up! _

Groaning, Chrono slowly opens his eyes and winces at the light that bombards him, blinking away the tears caused by the pain from the change in brightness, Chrono focuses on the offending source and recognises it as the early morning sun.

Rolling off his back away from the window to relieve himself of the ache and sticky warmth that pervades when sleeping too long. Chrono comes face to face with the maid Siesta who is staring at him with a half lidded expression, not because she's tired, but of the unamused variety. His previous experiences this expression got him thinking._ Uh oh... This can't be good, she found out that I could use magic as well. Although that isn't really her business, females always take it the wrong way when they believe you've hidden the truth about something from them. _

Attempting to apologise pre-emptively in order to control the damage, Chrono tries desperately to speak with no sound forthcoming as he retches from the extreme dryness of his parched throat.

"So you're awake..." Siesta drawls out in a flat tone as she retreats from the bead to a fully standing position.

Chrono at this point manages to painfully squeeze out the words "Wait! I can explain."

Siesta bluntly replies. "Explain what? There's nothing that you need to explain to me."

Throwing off the blanket covering him, Chrono jumps off the bed into the stance of the crouching tiger(1). "I'm sorry for not telling you that I have magic! I just don't know how to use it like everyone else here does! Everything else I've told you is true."

Turning her head away with a slight blush on her cheeks, Siesta closes her eyes then clears her throat. "You're forgiven, it is an honour for me to be able to serve nobles such as yourself remember? By the way, you aren't dressed."

Chrono raises his head from its position on the floor and looks down at himself to find himself in only his underpants and promptly turns entirely red as he makes a mad dash for his clothes which were hanging from a nearby floor standing coat hanger.

Chuckling amusedly at the scene of Chrono frantically getting himself dressed Siesta speaks in a much kinder voice. "You were asleep for three days and three nights."

Walking up to the now fully dressed Chrono, Siesta further messes up Chrono's messy bed hair indicating towards Louise who Chrono now sees is sleeping at her dressing table and continues. "Miss Vallière must have tired herself out. She ordered me to bring all her meals here along with yours. She didn't sleep one bit while taking care of you."

Looking towards Louise, Chrono blanches and thinks. _I know it! When she wakes up, she's going to blast me, she probably just took care of me like that out of some misguided sense of duty. She's probably going to punish me with something a lot worse than laundry since I've hidden the truth, disobeyed her again and made her take care of me for this long._

Hands resting on Chrono's shoulders, Siesta looks down at him and asks. "What's wrong? Why are you trembling?"

Answering in a soft voice, intending not to wake Louise up by accident, Chrono replies. "I think she's going to be angry at me when she wakes up. Who knows what sort of punishment she'll give me."

Nodding in understanding then entering a thoughtful pose, Siesta says slowly. "I really don't think she's angry at you, if anything she was really happy that you could use magic."

A moan startles the both of them as Louise begins to stir, causing Siesta to let go of Chrono and him to dive into the bed while covering himself completely with the blanket, cowering. You all are probably wondering why Chrono's so scared when he has proven his strength, he knows well that the Mid-childan saying 'there is nothing scarier than an angry female.'(2) is true.

Smiling at Louise's sleepy visage as Louise opens her eyes, Siesta reports."Miss Vallière, your breakfast is ready. You'll be happy to hear that Master Harlown is also awake and is currently hiding under the blankets on your bed."

Becoming fully awake in the instant she hears this, Louise stands up so quickly the chair she was sleeping in toppled over.

Glaring at Siesta from a slight opening underneath the blanket, Chrono thinks. _Traitor!_

Turning his attention to the figure of Louise stalking towards the bed he has hidden himself on, Chrono breaks out in cold sweat. _Insert appropriate swearword here(3) _Chrono's thoughts are cut short as the defensive instrument known as the blanket was removed with ease. Preparing for the worst, Chrono raises his hands defensively in front of him to no avail as his small body is promptly crushed into Louise's nonexistent chest.

"Thank the founder you're alright Chrono." Louise half sobs out as she continues to hold him gently.

Staying with Chrono in that position for a while Louise smiles as Siesta excuses herself from the room. Releasing Chrono from her hold, Louise wipes the tears of relief that had formed in her eyes. Leaving Chrono stunned and relieved. Regaining her composure Louise stands up straight and starts pacing in front of Chrono. Taking a deep breath and schooling her expression into one like a strict teacher, she begins to lecture. "It brings me great pride that you have revealed yourself to be a noble and having defeated your opponent. Despite that however, you are my familiar, and for you to disobey and worry your master in such a way, you need to be punished."

Chrono shrinks in on himself, depressed as he hears this. making his young body look even smaller than usual. "As such, in regards to your new found status as a noble, you will continue to wash my clothes until I say otherwise."

Chrono sighs and accepts his fate, at least this isn't as bad as he feared.

Louise stops her pacing and puts another smile on her face. She didn't know what it was, but seeing Chrono like that, Louise couldn't keep herself from comforting him.

Hugging Chrono again she says. "Cheer up! There's something to look forward to. You will be enrolled in this academy to learn how to use magic properly, isn't that great?"

Chrono immediately brightens at this.

**-Author's Notes-**

Hello all, hope you enjoyed chapter 12 of TnC. I must apologize for the delay in getting this chapter out as the difference between the light novels and the anime confused me to such a great extent that I forgot that this story was supposed to diverge even further. I had actually finished this chapter 4 weeks ago but I had wanted to get it proof read since I no longer can rely on the anime to provide in character speeches, unfortunately, neither of them had gotten back to me.

Notes for this chapter are:

(1) Reference to Ranma 1/2, Genma's signature move when he needs to apologise for something.

(2) Parody of "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned." Since Chrono isn't actually from earth, I needed to change this saying a bit.

(3) Chrono doesn't swear in English or actually at all in the anime, so I have no idea what he'd actually use, maybe you could give me an idea.

Thanks everyone for their reviews as usual.

**Skurosagi** I have not yet read the manga unfortunately, but I believe that you are right despite there being no mention as such in the anime or light novels. I'll just use the excuse that Chrono's Mid-Childan magic and that of the ZnT world are not yet compatible.

**Eromancer **Chrono possibly being out of character was exactly why I hesitated in posting out this chapter actually. His character isn't majorly focussed on in the anime or in the mangas. I mainly just like him due to his character design. It's true that Chrono has a mouth on him so to say, but other than the Lieze Twins he only uses it to people in his generation or younger that he's familiar with. As for him fainting, that's just laziness on my part, it'd be so hard to end that section otherwise. Bear with me.

**sakurabender **Sorry to say, Chrono's devices won't be seen again until he acquires Derflinger. As that might already be too much of a spoiler, I won't say how many chapters ahead that's planned for.

Thanks for reading and see you next time.


	13. Adopted

Tsukaima no Chrono

Chapter 13: Adopted, Eh! I'm going to be taught by Louise the Zero?

In a room about 12 tatami mats in size, where if you treated the window as south, the bed would be situated on the west side, the door would be to the north, and a big wardrobe would stand to the east in which all the furniture looked like valuable antiques. We find Louise sitting opposite to Chrono at the table located at the center of that room.

"As you have made me so proud and have proven your worth as my familiar, I have sent out a letter to my father the Duke and had you adopted into my family at my request. To get him to accept this as I did not believe he would accept you being from another world, I told him that I had summoned you who was a noble from another country, the name of which you did not know of due to your age. He and my mother agreed as you were both my familiar and a noble." Louise says in an excited and proud tone, she then continues with a more sympathetic tone. "I now believe that you did come from another world, although there is no way that I know of to get you back there, I'm being completely honest when I say there's no such spell. Nobody's even heard of another world. Since you are a small child, this will be the very best option for you. I'm sure you will be very happy being part of the illustrious Vallière family. Do you have any questions?"

As he listened to Louise, Chrono's expression was of surprise as he was offered a new family, it quickly dropped as he was reminded of the one he most likely would never see again. _I guess this is for the best, good food and luxury although primitive, I can't really ask for a better situation._ Quickly getting over his sadness, Chrono thinks of a few questions he wanted to know about this world as questions have only been asked of him and he has not learnt much outside of Louise's room. Chrono then asks. "Where am I exactly?"

Louise replies "You're at the renowned Tristain Academy for Magic. The main spire is the tallest and is the center of the academy, it contains the dining hall, the living quarters and the principal's office as well as the treasure vault, the five towers at the boundary wall surrounding it represent each of the five elements, wind, fire, earth, water and void. You can find the kitchen, bathing rooms, lecture halls, servants quarters and armories in these towers. The Vestry Court where you fought Guiché was located between the wind and fire elemental towers."

"Academy of Magic?" Chrono enquires.

"I'm a second year student, Louise de La Vallière. As you know this place is a school for magic."Louise replied patiently.

In response to how Louise answered, Chrono asked a more intelligent question. "How did you summon me?"

"I won't be going into the details as the entire process is part of the summon servant series of spells which you yourself will most likely be learning but, The answer is I casted the spell 'Summon Servant' for the traditional 'Springtime Familiar Summoning' ritual, where after I was forced to use the 'Contract Servant' spell on you as I could not redo my summon due to this particular ritual being a sacred rite. Personally, I wanted to have something wicked like a dragon or a griffin or a manticore. At least an eagle or an owl. However I got something as uncool as a common human, or so we thought." Louise explains.

"Sorry for being human." Chrono replies to which Louise cheerfully responds. "Not at all, you're the coolest familiar out there now, a mage who has defeated another noble!"

Taking in this answer from Louise, Chrono asks his last question. "Now that I've been adopted into the Vallière family, is there anything you think I should know, such as responsibilities?"

Hearing this question, Louise eagerly replies. "It's great that you're so enthusiastic to learn more about the family! As one of us, you have a responsibility of carrying the pride of being a noble in all things and serve your country with your best efforts. Almost all mages are nobles. The saying 'nobles achieve nobility through the use of magic' is a foundation for the education we receive as nobles. Thus, everything you see in this academy is fitting of a noble's status, provided to us in return for the services we provide." _I_ w_onder what she means by 'almost' all mages. _Chrono thinks as he hears this

Taking a short breather, Louise continues boastfully. "The Vallière family has a proud history defending the border between Tristain and Germania and is related to the Tristainian royalty. The main mansion is three and a half days ride from this academy. The family now consists of six persons, the youngest of which is yourself, as you have been adopted, your name is now Chrono de Harlown des Vallière(1) followed by me, Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière, the third of three daughters. Then there are my big sisters Cattleya le Blanc de la Vallière and Eléonore le Blanc de la Vallière followed by the Duchess and Duke la Vallière."

Louise then smiles. "As such you're to call me big sister Louise, or just big sister from now." _She seems awfully happy about being my big sister, I thought women in general hated being old. _Chrono ponders.

Louise continues to list out what she considers vital information. "You will be receiving an allowance as a noble from Tristain's finance office an annuity of five hundred ecu(2). This is a small sum for a person of this families noble status, but given your apparent age and the fact that your board at this academy has been paid for, it is of no concern. I have already had you measured for a uniform while you were asleep." _It seems her sense of my modesty hasn't changed regardless that I am a noble in her eyes now. _

"I believe that is all you need to know. We will be travelling to meet the rest of the family in a month's time during the inter-semester break after the yearly 'Familiar Debut' event that the Royal Princess is going to attend." Louise says this as she heads towards her wardrobe.

As Louise reaches the wardrobe, she opens it with great bravado and pulls out a male version of the Tristain academy's uniform with a black cape and takes it back to Chrono. "Here's your uniform, now quickly change into it, classes start soon."

Noticing the color of the cape, Chrono asks. "The cape's not meant to be brown? I thought black capes were for second year."

Louise proudly replies. "I managed to convince the principal to put you into the same classes as me by promising to teach you the basics myself. Although you're my little brother now, you're still my familiar. Now stop wasting time and get changed!"

"Aren't you going to leave the room so I can get changed?" Chrono asks as he finds Louise still looking at him.

"No, I hear that young boys tend to not behave and go out to play if you don't take them directly to school. Besides, there's no part of you that I have not seen before. Now change!" Louise commands.

Resigning himself to his fate, Chrono sighs and begins to change before he gains a startling revelation that he promptly blurts aloud. "Eh! I'm going to be taught by Louise the Zero?"

This was quickly followed by a whap! sound as Louise hits him on the head and angrily shouts. "Call me big sister! Stop stalling and change already!"

-**Author's notes-**

Hello again, hoped you enjoyed chapter 13 of TnC, although in my own opinion this one's a bit long winded and boring, but it was necessary to set out the groundwork for how this story's going to diverge. Louise is OOC, or rather she should seem OOC as Saito was nothing to be proud of in ZNC. Chrono on the other hand is something she can boast of.

Ok, I must apologise for the huge delay in posting this chapter, between a vacation, buying a new car, being posted over seas followed by the end of financial year as well as juggling several MMOs while chasing up many series of anime, I had completely forgotten that this story existed. I was only reminded by a recent flood of reviews that appeared in my email inbox while I was checking at work.

As I had to reread my story I have found the seperating marks between the story and the Author's notes have dissapeared, something to do with the coding perhaps? I'll fix them up later.

Only two points to make this chapter:

(1) I speaketh no French and I have no idea whether or not I renamed Chrono properly in this circumstance.

(2) Taken from the light novels, 500 ecu is the sum recieved from the finance office for low ranked nobles with no land to their name. In general regardless of where someone lives onthe Halkeginia continent the living expenses of a commoner are 120ecu per year and the sum Chrono is to recieve will comfortably pay for the general lively hood of a family of four.

Now for answers to the reviews, which I give many thanks for.

**Aleh **I have attempted to use paragraph breaks, however I'm not too sure that I have used them properly. I have long since graduated school and university and have noone of suitable English qualifications to ask.

**Ninmikey01 **You will know what happens to Derflinger soon enough, he shares his fate with S2U and Durrandal.

**Lord Sia** I will probably have to reedit the scene to include the word 'look' as I was merely describing the appearance of the magical bolts Chrono used in the fight. I mean Nonoha's Starlight breaker doesn't ever seem to do much physical damage except for when she blasted through part of the 'Cradle' to get at number 4.

As for the other reviewers, thanks for letting me know that you enjoy this story. See you all next chapter.


	14. Chrono, we're rich!

Tsukaima no Chrono

Chapter 14: Chrono, we're rich!

Judging from the position of the sun in the sky, one would deduce that the current time would be around midday or slightly after. In this clear bright scenery within the walls of what looks like a castle with a tall spire in the middle, we see Louise dragging Chrono by the hand as they walk along one of five covered pathways that lead from the centre spire towards the five outer towers situated at each of the corners of the pentagonal boundary wall.

"Hurry up Chrono!" Louise states as she walks at a quick pace.

"We can't be late for this class." Louise then shudders , her cheeks reddening, as if remembering something of particular embarrassment.

"_Wonder why she's so concerned about this class?" _Chrono thinks as he struggles to match Louise's pace, it's not that he can't outrun her, but being dragged along, matching her pace despite the difference in their leg lengths was causing him trouble.

Out loud Chrono asks as they enter the darkness of the earth elemental tower at the end of the pathway and begin to head up the stone steps within. "What will we be learning here?"

Louise replies briefly with her free arm clenching into a fist. "Alchemy, The teacher's name is Mrs. Chevreuse. Anyway, we've arrived." Louise then pushes open the wooden door that led to the classroom that was their destination and they both went into the light that shone from it.

After their eyes readjusted to the light, Chrono and Louise were greeted to the sight of a classroom arranged in a similar fashion to most modern day university lecture theatres on Earth. Being made completely out of stone, the podium was at the lowest point in the classroom on which stood a wooden lectern with the seats being arranged in a semi circle facing it as they climbed upwards like stairs. In front of each row of seats were wooden tables, each wide enough for a pair of people to sit in front of. The windows above them situated in the surrounding wall letting in generous amounts of light. The door which they entered being at the highest level.

Soon the students that occupied said classroom noticed the pair and silence quickly descended from the noise that was present only moments prior as everyone turned their heads towards the new arrivals. As everyone studied them, Chrono took the chance to study everyone else in return while he and Louise walked towards the seats, taking note of how Kirche, whom he recognised having met her earlier, was surrounded by a group of boys that had their upper torsos leaning towards her. "_Oh... with that figure of hers, it's not surprising that she has that many boys wrapped around her finger, she's probably like a queen among that group and that must be Flame, her salamander curled up underneath her chair."_

Taking in a larger view of the entire room, he observed all the familiars that the students had brought with them, the many owls that sat upon their owners shoulders, the bug bear that had given him a fright before, ravens, cats and even the rare six legged lizard that was a Basilisk. Looking out one of the windows, Chrono saw a giant snake peeking in that was quickly called away by a whistle as the owner realised Chrono was studying it. Then surprisingly Chrono caught a glimpse of something he didn't actually recognise. Tugging on the hand that was still holding his, Chrono caught Louises attention, unaware of how that made him look and asks. "What is that octopus like thing?"

Taking a look towards the direction Chrono was facing, she identifies the creature he was referring to. "That's a Skua." She answers in a bored tone as she sits down in front of Montmorency, the blonde that Chrono remembered Guiché flirting with. Indicating the seat beside her she commands. "Sit, class is about to start."

Heading over, Chrono thinks. _"Whoever designed this place must have been a pervert. Anyone can see directly up the skirts of the girls sitting behind them."_

As Chrono sits down beside Louise, the classroom became a flurry of action with the majority of the female population excepting Kirche and the blue haired girl sitting near her began to surround the pair. Comments and questions bombarded Chrono and Louise consisting of:

"Wah, he's so cute." Came from a girl who immediately pulled him off his seat and into a hug.

"He's so handsome." Came from a small girl who instantly started pinching his cheeks.

"So he's the one who defeated Guiché." A plain looking girl sitting directly behind Chrono said.

"He looked so brave and heroic!" Gushed a blonde with a green bow in her hair.

"I heard he got adopted as a Vallière." A brunette sitting in front asked Louise.

This was quickly followed by, "Where is he from?"

"He's your little brother now?"

"Did you figure out which nation he is from?"

All of this caused the pair to become dumbfound and speechless, unable to comprehend or prepare any answers and although some girls had the decency to ask. "Can I touch him?" Nobody actually waited for a reply with Chrono finding his cheeks pulled, his hair ruffled, hugged, kissed and rubbed all over as unbeknownst to him the males in the class gave dirty looks in his general direction.

Being assaulted with questions and having to watch Chrono be molested, an angry vein popped on Louises forehead quickly followed by an angry outburst.

"Stop it!" Louise shouted as she was promptly ignored.

Waving her arms wildly didn't seem to draw any attention either as she screamed. "Leave my little brother alone! He's my familiar!"

Having continued for around five minutes Louise loses all her patience and looking outside a bright light, dwarfing the midday sun briefly shone like beams out through the windows of the tower. A loud bang was heard. Once again looking inside the classroom, silence has once again descended, leaving a soot covered Chrono, Louise and the girls surrounding him with various parts of their clothing missing, bodies scratched and burnt with their hairstyles changed into afros.

Montmorency who was also caught in the blast since she was sitting directly behind Louise, trembled in barely suppressed rage as she cast a spell. "You should all cool down!" she stated as her burnt eyebrows twitched. A flood of water descending from above the group like a waterfall, drenched the group and they all found their minor injuries healed and hair straightened if waterlogged.

At this moment the door to the classroom opened again and the teacher, a middle-aged woman dressed in a voluminous purple robe and wearing a hat with a plump, round face with a friendly expression entered. Looking to and fro between the two groups surrounding Kirche and Louise, then looking at the other students who seemed to be cowering under their tables for cover, she clears her throat and in a polite but authoritative tone says. "Everyone return to your seats please.

The students having returned to their seats and the woman having stepped down to the lectern, she gazes around the classroom with a satisfied smile and spoke. "Well, everyone, it seems that the Springtime Familiar Summoning was a great success. I, Chevreuse, always enjoy seeing the new familiars that are summoned each spring."

Chrono felt a stare and the teacher Chevreuse continued. "My, my. You've summoned quite a... peculiar familiar, Miss Vallière,"

The comment was fairly innocent, but the classroom exploded with laughter and a male voice shouted out. "Louise the Zero! Don't go around grabbing tourists randomly off the street just because you can't summon anything! Think about Tristain's reputation!"

At this insult, Louise immediately stood up from her seat, her long pink hair billowing behind her as she raised her cute voice in anger. "No! I did everything properly! Chrono was who appeared!"

"Don't lie! I bet you couldn't even cast 'Summon Servant' properly, right?" The male voice called out once again.

The other students chuckled.

"Mrs. Chevreuse! I've been insulted! Malicorne the 'Common Cold' just insulted me!" Louise protested as she banged her fist against the tabletop.

"Common cold? I'm Malicorne the Windward! I haven't caught any cold!" the male now identified as Malicorne retorted.

"Well, your hoarse voice sounds exactly like you've caught one!" Louise shot back.

The boy called Malicorne stood up and glared at Louise. Chevreuse pointed at them with the wand in her hand. The two suddenly jerked about like puppets on a string and rigidly sat back down. "Miss Vallière, Mister Malicorne. Please stop this unnecessary argument."

Louise looked visibly dejected. All the vivacity that she'd shown just earlier seemed to have evaporated.

"Calling friends 'Zero' or 'Common Cold' is not acceptable. Do you understand?" The teacher scolded.

"Mrs. Chevreuse, I'm only called that as a joke, but for Louise, it's the truth." popped out from Malicorne.

A few giggles broke out from somewhere.

Chevreuse looked around the classroom with a severe expression. She pointed her wand again, and, as if from nowhere, the mouths of the students who'd giggled were suddenly filled with lumps of red clay. "You people shall continue the lesson in that state." she said, which put a firm stopper on any further outbursts.

Looking pointedly now at Chrono, Mrs. Chevreuse smiled gently at him. "Mister Vallière is quite welcome as a student here."

Chevreuse coughed heavily and waved her wand. A few pebbles materialized on the lectern.

"My Runic name is 'Red Clay.' Chevreuse the Red Clay. This year, I will be teaching you all the magic of the Earth element. Do you know the four great elements of magic, Mister Malicorne?" asked Chevreuse.

"Y-Yes, Mrs. Chevreuse. They are Fire, Water, Earth and Wind." stuttered Malicorne.

Chevreuse nodded. "And combined with the now-lost element of 'Void,' there are five elements in total - as everyone should already know. Of the five elements, I believe Earth holds an extremely important position. This isn't just because my affinity is Earth, nor is it simply a personal preference."

Once again, Chevreuse coughed heavily.

"The magic of Earth is very important magic that governs the creation of all matter. If it wasn't for Earth magic, we wouldn't be able to produce or process necessary metals. Raising buildings from large boulders and harvesting crops would also involve much more work. In this manner, the magic of the Earth element is intimately related to everyone's life."

_"As I suspected, people use magic to do any task, even the most common of building and production tasks on this world. No wonder all the mages here have an inflated sense of self importance. The entire population is almost unable to survive without them__." _Chrono notes in disapproval to himself as he hears this but turns back to listen to Mrs. Chevreuse's lecture.

"Now, everyone, please recall that the basic magic of the Earth element is 'transmutation'. While there will be people here who have already learned this in their first year and since our last lesson was unexpectedly cut short, basics build foundations, so let's review it once more."

Chevreuse turns her attention to the pebbles and twirled her wand over them and whispers a spell causing them to glow brightly. When the light dimmed away, the pebbles had been changed into sparkling lumps of metal.

"As I have said to Miss Zerbst last lesson. This isn't gold. It's plain brass. Only Square-class mages are able to transmute to gold. I'm just..." Chevreuse gave a self-important cough. "A Triangle mage..."

"As we are once again covering the basics we shall go through this as well. Fire, Water, Earth and Wind. By combining several of these elements you can create more powerful spells with different effects and our levels as mages depend on the number we can combine. Just what are these levels?" Chevreuse asks.

"Go ahead." Chevreuse gestures at Montmorency who has raised her hand.

Standing up proudly as she brushes a strand of hair over her shoulder, Montmorency answers. "If you can combine two, you are a line. Three, a triangle. Four and you will be called a square."

Chrono laughs at that statement internally, stifling a giggle that sounded like a sniffle causing Louise to look at him worriedly._"Oh. Being able to combine any element for any situation in infinite combinations is the basis for the magic circles that most advanced magic capable societies use. If we use the number of vertices in shapes to describe how many elements we can combine, I guess I'm a circle then, only the infinite vertices of a circle can properly describe a Midchildan mage. Who would want to be called a square anyway?"_

"I believe most of you can only use one but..." Chevreuse says before she is interrupted by Kirche who speaks out aristocratically. "Mrs. Chevreuse, mind my words, but there is still a student that is unable to use a single element without a success rate of zero."

Every pair of eyes in the classroom excluding Chevreuse's and Chrono's then stared accusingly at Louise. "_Ah so that's where Louise's Zero nickname came from, I thought it was due to her always causing explosions due to her elemental affinity to anti-matter."_

Finally noticing the reference, Chevreuse says while laughing apologetically as if having a painful memory. "Well, anyhow, please try your best to get to higher classes. Let us continue on from our last lesson."

"Can anyone other than Miss Vallière come and demonstrate the transmutation spell for us?" Chevreuse says as she waves her wand causing another three pebbles to appear.

Louise hurriedly interrupts. "Mrs. Chevreuse, please let me demonstrate, I will not make any mistakes this time!"

The entire class including Chrono then shouts "No!" causing some of the other students to look at Chrono in surprise. While he knew better and did not agree that Louise couldn't use any element properly, despite not being around for the last lesson, he could pretty much guess it ended in an explosion and should Louise attempt the spell, this one wouldn't end any differently.

Taking advantage of everyone else's shock. Chrono raises his hand and asks. "May I try?"

Hearing this the rest of the class gained nervous expressions, while some have seen Chrono successfully use magic in his duel against Guiché, he was still the familiar of Louise the Zero.

Mrs. Chevreuse's expression could literally be seen changing throughout the spectrum as she weighed up the possibility of another semester long stay in the medical ward and her duties as a teacher. Eventually, her pride as a noble won out and she nodded at Chrono. "Mister Vallière please demonstrate the transmutation spell for us. The key words for this spell are leru-vin-ya(1). Please think strongly about the metal you wish to form through alchemy."

Closing his eyes as a large proportion of the class dive down below their tables Chrono waves the wand that was given to him by Louise as they left her room. He pauses as he thinks of a metal to change the pebbles to. _"Guess it should be bronze since that's what the teacher did, hmm what was that like?"_

Having trouble visualizing the metal Chrono opens his eyes and takes a look at the pebbles on the lectern, the previous bronze ones having disappeared. Having no reference Chrono closes his eyes again and decides. _"Guess I'll do this atom by atom then. Hmm, I think it had 79 protons and neutrons with an electron structure of_ _[Xe] 4f__142__ 5d__10__ 6s__1__ and a relative atomic mass of 197. Ok, got it!"_

With this image in mind, he recites "leru-vin-ya." and points his wand towards the pebbles on the lectern. A flash of light envelops the area causing all in the room to cover their eyes, many of those who haven't already done so diving under their tables as they expected an explosion.

The light clears and Chrono looks at the pebbles and feels ashamed of himself. _"How could a mage like me fail a spell from a backward society like this?"_

Out loud he starts to apologize, missing the gasps that come from the many students in the room. "Sorry Mrs. Chevereuse, I..." He was then interrupted by a very excited Kirche. "Wow, he just turned the entire room into bronze!"

Touching the walls of the classroom in disbelief, Mrs. Chevreuse looked like she was about to have a heart attack and yelled out loudly with awe in her voice "NO MISS ZERBST, THIS ISN'T BRONZE, THIS IS PURE GOLD..."

Mrs. Chevreuse slides down onto the floor as she no longer had the power to stand, The many classmates of Louise and Chrono running around and rubbing the walls in excitement. Money signs appearing in Louise's eyes, she runs down to Chrono and spins him around while hugging him to her chest. "Chrono, we're rich!"

**-Authors Notes-**

Hello all, hope you enjoyed chapter 14 of TnC. This didn't turn out as funny as I imagined it would be, personally I think I made the chapter too long, anyways I can always edit it later, along with all the fixes I still have to make to the previous chapters.

Only one point this chapter:

(1) no idea if I got the incantation to the spell right.

Thanks for the reviews as usual all.

**Le loup de Kaiser **I have more than just lost logia from MGLN appearing in this story, that will still be awhile away however since I will be straying much further away from the cannon arcs of ZNT than my original plan.

**GeshronTyler **I have seen all the series and read all the night novels, the manga basically follows the anime with only a few extra clarifications, at this point I am merging major portions of both the light novels and the anime, so there will be surprises to even those that think they know ZNT well.

**Cooly **people like you and Le loup de Kaiser are almost reading my mind, If I could request it without breaking the guideline agreement. I'd want someone to take this idea off me and develop it, but a challenge is against the rules.

**Aleh **Thank you for the clear expression of paragraph breaks. I will be going back to my previous chapters to add them while I correct the other mistakes I've noticed.

Hope to see you all next chapter.


	15. A man, woman and rumours of a thief

Tsukaima no Chrono

Chapter 15: A man, woman and rumours of a thief.

As the scene of mayhem set upon a background reminiscent of El-Dorado, the city of gold, continues... Mrs. Chevreuse, the fat lady teacher dressed in purple witches robes and pointy hat regains her composure. Standing up slowly upon shaky legs she shouts out to the rampaging students. "Settle down! Everyone return to your seats!"

Having been ignored by the over excited crowd Chevreuse picks up the wooden mallet resting upon the now pure gold podium and slams the mallet down upon it resulting in a deep dent in the sparkling soft metal surface causing the pebbles resting nearby to jump. From this contact a reverberating "Dong!" sound similar to that which could be found should one be silly enough to stand within the bell at a cathedral knocks everyone over including Chevreuse herself as they try to sooth their pounding ears.

Pulling her wobbly self up upon the podium, Chevreuse shakes the ringing out of her head and decides that the lesson will no longer be salvageable then points her wand towards the pair slumped down on the floor, Louise kneeling with her arms wrapped around Chrono. "Mister and Miss Vallière, come with me to the headmaster's office."

Chevreuse then sweeps her wand over the rest of the class and orders. "The rest of you are to stay here and await our return, please behave yourselves or you will be punished."

Taking the glare that Mrs. Chevreuse gives them as she majestically sweeps around, her cloak billowing from the action, as an indication for them, Chrono and Louise quickly follow her out of the classroom.

The trio soon arrive outside the headmaster's office at the top of the centre spire where they witness a middle aged man with a pompous hairdo and long curly moustache dressed in puffy pants and stockings speaking with a young green haired glasses wearing woman in a short blue dress. Staring condescendingly towards the woman's chest the man asks. "Would you care to have a meal with me sometime, Ms. Longueville?"

The woman now identified as Ms. Longueville has a startled look of realisation that is quickly replaced by a smile and blush even as her own hands are instantly placed in a protective position above her breasts answers. "It would be an honour, Count Mott."

The man now identified as Count Mott replies with a smile. "I will be eagerly anticipating it." Longueville then bows as Mott leaves, Chevreuse and Louise bowing as well as he passes by with Chrono following their lead.

As soon as the Count is out of view, Longueville lets out a hmph with a disgusted look on her face, noticing Chevreuse and two students, she changes her tune and asks with a smile. "Are you here to see the headmaster?" Chevreuse nods which prompts Longueville to continue. "Please wait a moment while I check if he's available." Longueville then enters the headmaster's room.

Chrono tugs on Louise's sleave and asks. "Who was that Count Mott person, why did we have to bow to him?"

Louise answers. "He's an important man from the palace, a representative of the royal family. You will learn more about the necessary etiquette and relationships when we travel to our home in a month's time."

The pair quickly stop chattering as Chevreuse sends them a quieting look, indicating a bench where they then go sit and wait patiently. From the direction of the door muted noises resembling conversation can be heard as Chrono secretly eavesdrops from his position next to Louise with his enhanced hearing.

"So, what impossible task has the Palace assigned to us now?" the voice Chrono identifies as Longueville's questions.

A squeaky old man's voice that Chrono assumes is the headmaster's then answers. "Oh, he just came to advise us to be careful of a thief."

"Thief?" Longueville enquires.

The male voice answers in an amused tone. "Recently there has been a thief named Fouquet who has been stealing treasures from nobles using magic and causing a commotion amongst the public."

"Are you talking about Fouquet the crumbling dirt?" Longueville responds.

The male voice then explains. "Well, our institution is taking care of the palace's sacred artefact, the Staff of Destruction."

'_Staff of Destruction?' Is that a 'Lost Logia'? _Chrono thinks in the pause after the explanation as he hears this but concentrates as the conversation begins again.

"Staff of Destruction? What a vicious name..." Longueville comments.

The male voice continues at the prompt. "I don't care how powerful Fouquet is but our treasure room has been fortified by multiple square class mages, there is no need to worry." Referring to his knowledge from today's failed lesson, Chrono thinks. _I guess they would be pretty assured of this Staff of Destruction's safety since a square is their highest known level of magic._

Chrono then hears a squeal from Fouquet followed by the male voice begging "Wait... Wait... Wait!" followed by a pained scream and sounds of glass breaking which startled not just him but causing Louise and Chevreuse to look at the door. Something solid then dropped hard onto the floor.

Hearing a disgusted hmph from Longueville similar to the one she let out when Count Mott left, he hears her say. "By the way, Chevreuse is waiting outside to see you with two students."

Sounds which are similar to a person climbing back into their seat can be heard and the male voice groans and answers. "Very well, send them in." confirming Chrono's suspicions that this was the headmaster.

The door then swings open slightly, revealing Longueville. "Sir Osmond will see you now." she tells the waiting trio.

As the door opens to its full extension, deep within the room was an old man with long white hair, eyebrows and beard, similar to the style depicted of Merlin fingers interlaced sitting with his elbows propped on his elegantly built sequoia desk, looking unbearably bored.

This would have been everything expected of the headmaster of an ancient magic institute, excepting the fact that there was a big circular red bruise sprouting comically on his forehead upon the background of a broken window.

**Author's notes.**

Hello all, hoped you liked TnC Chapter 15. It's been awhile since I last wrote and I apologise to those who I disappointed. Life however can drain you, so that's my excuse. This was a short chapter, and chapters will stay short while I get back into the hang of writing again. As this was a setup chapter, it wasn't filled with any comical references but I'd like to answer some reviews that have popped up during my hiatus.

**drinker **While I agree that Chrono is quite a strong character in the original and that he definitely won't normally stand back and be subservient as is shown when he throws Graham's plans out the window in A's. It's because Chrono is so level headed that he isn't fighting the familiar contract and that the prime directive has to stay. If technically advanced magic societies either didn't have the morals of those without magic or weren't scared of the impact. There would be no need for magical area barriers to hide the effects of a magical battle. If the end of A's shows anything, It shows that Chrono stands by TSAB's ideals.

**YuriFan5** It's definitely not okay from our economic standpoint for gold to be reproduced given that it is used as the reserve in our universe. Should it be abundantly produced with any sort of regularity it will then lead to the devaluation of everything up to a point where it is abandoned as a reserve.

However in the end, gold is just another resource and pricing in a capitalist society is just the demand/supply market equilibrium. It will not be a problem in the ZnT/MGLN universes simply due to the amount of demand/supply, it is impossible due to the amount of magic required to supply enough to devalue the mineral by any real amount. For example, any of our currencies here will be completely worthless other than as paper to the people in this story.

**Maimakterion** You would be correct that it would be out of character for TSAB enforcers to hold back magic in cases where it doesn't directly compromise their mission, in fact even in Star Trek where I pulled the reference from, in such situations it can be ignored. However in the view of TSAB, the magic in Halkeginia definitely cannot be considered high magic and is pathetically primitive comparatively.

Hope to see you all next chapter and please welcome James Ray Edwards as my new editor.


	16. Story Discontinued

Hi all,

I'd like to apologise to all those people who've been following this story for the past 4 years, however as I haven't updated in more than 1 year, I do not see myself as being able to continue this story.

While it doesn't mean that I won't perhaps post a new chapter sometime in the future, please do not wait in earnest.

The story could now be considered 'up for adoption' as some would say.

A story outline that I had once planned for the future of this story is available through DocX, if you wish to see it, please pm me and set up a DocX connection.

Once again, thanks for reading all and sorry.


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